Book 33 - Girl In Trouble
by GailDunn2
Summary: WARNING: MAY CONTAIN VIOLENCE, AND ADULT CONTENT. Gail will go to just about any lengths to get what she needs. But, will Death be willing to help her, or has she used up all his good will? Some people from the past make an appearance, for better or for worse. And some who have remained in the dark emerge, making things extremely complicated
1. I'll Fight Hell To Hold You Again

Chapter 1 - I'll Fight Hell To Hold You Again

Gail sat there, eyeing Crowley. "Why don't you seem surprised to see me?" she asked him.

"Because I'm not," he replied matter-of-factly. "Romeo and Juliet. Tristan and Isolde. Jack and Rose. Oops, I guess that last one is a bit of a bad analogy. Or is it? We both know you haven't earned a berth here. What's going on, sweetheart?"

"So you know that Cas is dead," she said flatly.

He took a drink. "Of course I do. He was my brother, wasn't he? I could feel it, right away."

Gail nodded. "Then I won't waste your time, or insult your intelligence. What'll it take?"

Crowley's lips twitched. "You entertain me, so much," he told her. "It's going to be fun having you around." He nodded to the decanter. "Go ahead, have a snort. I'm sure you could use it."

"I'm not interested in drinking, I'm interested in dealing," Gail said, shaking her head. "So, I repeat: What'll it take?"

"Nothing, sweetheart," the King replied. "Not a thing. There's no deal to be made here. What did you think was going to happen? Did you think that you were going to look at me with those vaunted doe eyes of yours, maybe make your bottom lip quiver a little, and I would just snap my fingers and bring your husband back to life?"

"Pretty much," Gail said calmly, although her guts were churning.

He was staring at her. "Now, why on earth would I do that?"

She gave him a half-shrug. "You did it before."

Crowley laughed shortly. "Yes, and it was the biggest mistake of my existence," he said harshly. "I suffered an inexplicable moment of sentiment. Believe me, it won't happen again."

"So, who's asking you to feel anything?" she shot back. "I'm trying to strike up a deal, here."

"Really?" he asked her, eyebrows raised. "And what could you possibly offer me that would persuade me to even consider bringing back the worst enemy I ever had, the greatest pain in my arse, the fetid and festering boil on my - "

"All right, I get it!" Gail interrupted him impatiently. "You're not a fan. So, to be redundant: What'll it take? Bottom line it for me. There's got to be something you want. There's always something you want. I could - "

Now, it was he who interrupted her. "If you say 'kill my mother', I'm going to laugh right in your face, and then I'm going to tell you to take a number."

Gail let out a frustrated breath. "Fine. We'll come up with something else, then. How about if I tell you some of Heaven's secrets?"

Crowley tilted his head, giving her an indulgent look. "Please. Do you think I don't know Heaven's so-called secrets?" he asked her in a bored tone. "Have you forgotten my origin story?"

She felt like stamping her foot now. "You know what? Maybe this is entertainment for you, but this is my life!" she said angrily. "We always do this stupid little song and dance. How about we just DON'T, this time? Just for something new and different, why don't you simply tell me what you want from me, I'll agree to it, and then we can be done here?"

Crowley sat back in his chair, regarding her coolly. "What do I want from you?" he echoed. "I want nothing from you. You have an exaggerated sense of self-importance. What makes you think that I give a tinker's dam about what you want? You're just some dewy-eyed girl who was able to play the victim long enough to get my brother's attention, and then you seduced your way into Heaven, to sit at his right hand. Don't you think, for one minute, that I care about what happens to you."

"You did, once," she pointed out. "You kidnapped me. Several times."

He shrugged, taking another drink. "So I did. You've got me, there. Turns out I could have just waited. So tell me, what sort of nefarious deeds did you have to confess to, to convince Bobby to send you here? Don't skimp on the sordid details. Did you filch a candy bar when you were a child? Curse in church? How about when you got to Heaven? I'll bet you were a huge hit with the Heavenly Hostesses. You should have raided Father's stash of sacramental wine and spiked the punch before talking to them. Loosened up the old bats a little." Crowley smirked. "Come on, you can tell me, sweetheart. How naughty did you get, exactly? How many sexual positions did you and Castiel invent in your Heavenly bed? My brother may have been a virgin for untold centuries before you came along, but we all know he sure as hell didn't die one."

"You're disgusting," she spat out.

"No, sweetheart, YOU are," Crowley said coldly. "You're God's wife, here to make a deal with the King of Hell. What are you doing? How do you think your Sainted husband would feel if he could see you now?"

Bitter tears stung her eyes. "I'm not going to think about that," Gail said stubbornly. "I can't think about that. I have to get him back. That's all I know. That's all that matters. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen."

"Then you're a fool," Crowley told her.

Gail fell silent. She and Crowley were staring each other down now. Who would blink first?

Bobby sat in his office, stewing. Laurel had tried to persuade him to move into the High Office, but thus far, he'd refused to do it.

It was hard to believe that Cas was really gone. Even when Heaven had executed him after the tribunal, he had come right back. Of course, Crowley had revived Cas then, although Bobby was sure he didn't know why. Maybe there was something between the brothers, something that people didn't know about. In a way, it had been only fair play: Cain had killed Abel, initially, so maybe Crowley had just owed Cas one.

Bobby sighed deeply. That was the real reason he'd sent Gail down to Hell. He knew she'd been spouting off partly due to her extreme grief, but also because she'd been trying to get Bobby to cast her down. When she'd realized she couldn't go in the front door, she'd decided to try to use the back door, instead. So Bobby had obliged her, but now what? Why on earth would Crowley ever bring Cas back again? Just because Gail wanted him to do it? Bobby loved Gail like a daughter, and he knew she had grown into a formidable woman. But, Gail was dreaming. If Bobby were Crowley, he wouldn't do it. Why would he? There would be no upside for him. None at all. What would Gail possibly have to offer him that would make Crowley willing to bring back the one individual he hated the most?

"I'll tell you what," Crowley said, pouring himself another drink. "Kill Sam and Dean Winchester, and I'll consider it." He lifted his eyes to her. "Oh, and kill your brother, too. He gets on my last nerve. You can leave Jody alive, though. I actually kind of like her. And she's been through enough recently, with her health problems."

Gail gaped at him, and after a moment, the King smirked. "You should see your face," he remarked. "So now, you're lying to me, as well. You're obviously NOT willing to do whatever it takes. How about this, then? How about you strip naked, walk over to that couch, and let me take you, right there? Completely have my way with you? Come on, sweetheart. You said you would do anything. Surely the return of the love of your life would be enough motivation for you to let me put my thingy in your whatsis?"

"You're being ridiculous now," she snapped. "If you were going to do that to me, you would have done it already, on one of the many occasions you've had me alone. With or without my consent. But you're not Lucifer, and I wouldn't expect you to descend to his level. And as for killing Sam or Dean or Frank, here you are, the King of Hell, and still, they live. So don't insult me by pretending that that's a real deal you're offering."

"Very good, sweetheart," Crowley said, toasting her with his glass. "Now you're starting to get it. Anything I could suggest would be ridiculous, because I have no intention of reviving Castiel. Ever. None. I will not do it. There. Is that clear enough for you?" He continued to stare at her. "Still, you have been a lot of fun over the years, and you were my sister-in-law. Therefore, I'm going to let you choose what you'd like to do here. I'm thinking you should be whipping people in the torture chambers. You wouldn't even need a proper whip. Just use that sharp tongue of yours. I've seen you wound more than just a few men, using that thing."

But for once, Gail was tongue-tied. Did he really mean what he was saying? Was he really not going to revive Cas? The fact that Crowley and Castiel hated each other was immaterial. Gail needed Cas back, and she needed Crowley to do it. Why wasn't he doing it?

"Do you really think you're going to keep me here?" she said in a quiet voice.

"I don't just think so, I know so," Crowley said. There was an edge to his voice now. "I'm the King, and what I say goes. You made the biggest mistake of your existence, Gail."

Bobby walked over to the High Office and stood in the middle of the room, looking around. His eyes landed on the desk, where Cas kept the olive branch that Gabriel had given him as a gift. There was no picture of Gail, but why should there be? The two of them had been practically joined at the hip. The jokes had circulated throughout Heaven that Gail should just pull up a chair next to Cas's here, and be done with it. That was, the rare times that Cas was actually in the office, of course. He wasn't too big on the administrative side of things.

This was unbelievable. What a balls-up situation. The common belief now was that Cas had gone to the Netherworld, which would make sense, considering his Exalted status. But then, why hadn't Gail gone there, too? She was an Original Angel, designated by God the Father Himself, and she was the reigning God's wife, as she had pointed out at her hearing in front of the Suicide Board. Technically, Cas had killed himself too of course, but because he had done it to stop himself from killing Gail, Death had obviously overlooked that fact, and taken Cas directly to his reward, as the expression went. Bobby barked a short laugh. Yeah, right. Some reward. Separated from Gail for all of eternity? That would be Cas's own version of Hell. How fair was that?

And poor Gail, standing in front of Bobby and the rest of the Board. Spitting out all that vitriol to get them to send her down to Crowley's domain, so that she could get down on her hands and knees and beg the King of Hell to revive her husband. That was a lost cause. Bobby was sure of it. But he'd loved Gail enough to let her try. What was going to become of her once Crowley refused, though?

Bobby lifted his head. "You coward, why don't you show your face?" he railed. "How could you just let Cas and Gail die like that? What's wrong with you? What have you got against them? Ever since you left here, you've been screwing Cas, right and left. Then you show up here, like a big hero, after the tribunal is over. But that was only after you gave me instructions to hang him out to dry. You killed him then, and you didn't even bother to revive him then, did you? Crowley ended up doing that! And what did Cas do when he saw you? He thanked you, and he told you he loved you. You know what? You're a child-abusing bastard. You're no better than John Winchester. When your kid needs you the most, you crap out on him. Anybody who thinks that you love your children clearly isn't paying attention. You could just wave one finger right now, one little finger, and fix this whole mess. But you've been giving us a different finger ever since you left here, haven't you? How the hell can you just sit back and justify taking Cas and Gail away from their family like this, and away from each other? Especially from each other. If you have some kind of mysterious, big-picture reason for taking them away from us, I guess we have no choice but to accept that. Soldiers die all the time. But to keep them apart like this, when you know how much they mean to each other? Well, that just makes you the biggest dick there ever was. You can just go take a flying leap."

But Bobby received no reply, of course. Why should he be any different than anyone else? He left the Office, slamming the door behind him.

"I wouldn't screw around with me, if I were you," Gail said to Crowley. She was seething now.

But Crowley was getting angry now, too. "It astounds me that you have the gall to sit there and threaten me, in my own Kingdom," he said through clenched teeth. "You no longer have the luxury of your husband's protection, or even of Heaven's. You are my little minion, to do with...well, whatever I want. You're an intelligent woman, or at least, I thought you were." He snapped his fingers, and she was handcuffed and bound. Then he pushed a button on his desk phone, and an instant later, one of his assistants appeared.

"Take her to the dungeon," Crowley ordered the Demon, who seized Gail, hauling her to her feet. She glared at Crowley, but she said nothing. "You will report to the Torture Master, and he will put you to work," the King said to her. "From what I hear, you're quite good. If you're even one-tenth as good as your husband was, you'll be a real asset to my team." Then he gave her a sarcastic smirk. "If it helps, you can picture my face on every victim that you go to work on. And if you do well under the tutelage of the Torture Master, maybe I'll move you up in the organization. Now: did you have anything else that you wanted to say to me? No? Good. Off you go, then."

Crowley sat down behind his desk, waving his hand at his Demon minion. The man dragged Gail out of the office, and the door closed behind them as the King poured himself another drink.

Frank let himself into the bunker and grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge, completely ignoring the fact that it was only ten o'clock in the morning. He walked into the library area to find Sam with a carafe of coffee next to him on the hotplate, poring over the computer like he was researching a case.

"Am I interrupting something?" Frank asked his friend.

"No, not really," Sam said, frowning. He sat back in his chair, eyeing the beer in Frank's hand. But he said nothing, because he would be a hypocrite. They had all been guilty of a little day-drinking ever since Gail and Cas's funeral. "I was just doing a little bit of light reading."

Frank moved behind Sam, looking over his shoulder at the computer screen. "Aztec cosmology?" Gail's brother asked. "What the hell is that?"

Sam shrugged uncomfortably. "It's a belief system that divides the world into thirteen Heavens, and nine layers of Netherworld, and several of them overlap."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Who cares? Where's Dean?"

Sam frowned again. "He and your son went to the shooting range. Didn't Rob tell you that?"

"I was still in bed when everybody left this morning," Frank responded. "Jody took Angela to that Cops For Cancer meeting. What a dumbass name that is. Shouldn't it be Cops AGAINST Cancer? Anyway, I told her when she was getting dressed that she could leave Angela with me, but she told me to forget it. She said she couldn't take the chance of leaving our baby with somebody who was probably gonna be drunk by the time the soaps came on. Can you imagine?"

Sam raised an eyebrow, looking again at the beer in Frank's hand. "What, this?" Frank said casually. "Just a little hair of the dog, that's all." He sat down next to Sam, letting out a frustrated breath. "Quit giving me the hairy eyeball, Sam. I'll cut down on my drinking when your brother does; how's that?" He took a long pull on his beer. "It keeps the nightmares away," Frank added bluntly. "All I can see is Gail in Hell, being subjected to who knows what. No wonder Bobby never shows his face around here anymore. He's probably afraid I'll stab him in it."

"That wasn't Bobby's fault," Sam said reflexively, although his stomach clenched at the imagery. "He was trying to help."

"By sending her to Crowley?" Frank yelled. He banged his beer bottle down on the table. "How can you just sit there like that, Sam? Gail is in Hell, and you're reading about Aztec whatever. Like that'll make a damn bit of difference!"

"You're not the only one who's grieving, Frank," Sam shot back. "When I sleep, if I sleep at all, I have nightmares, too. Why do you think I have this pot of coffee here? It's because I'm scared to close my eyes. I'm afraid of what I'll see if I do. I'm afraid I'm gonna see her being tortured on the rack, or being forced to torture somebody else. Then I picture Cas in the Netherworld, waiting for her to get there. Just standing there, patiently waiting, with nothing but hopeful anticipation on his face. The way he used to wait for her here, whenever they were apart. Like a puppy at the door. Or, worse: What if he knows, somehow? What if he knows she's in Hell, and there's nothing he can do about it? Take that pain that you're feeling, and mine, and Dean's, and everybody else's, roll it up into a big ball, and shove it down Cas's throat, why don't you? Dean goes to the shooting range, because he needs to blow the crap out of things. I do research on the Afterlife, because I need to believe that there's some kind of a loophole, something we can do to help our friends. It makes me feel like I'm at least trying. Jody is helping to raise money to fund cancer research, because she needs to help people like her get through their own journeys. Dean is taking Rob under his wing, because Rob needs somebody to hang with and to talk to, to process his own grief. Somebody who's not drunk off their ass every day."

Frank rose angrily from his chair, and Sam sat stoically, waiting to see if his friend was going to punch him in the face. But Frank just grabbed his beer bottle, looked at it, and then hurled it across the room, smashing it on the bookshelves. "Fuck you, Sam," Frank said bitterly, and he stalked down the hallway, exiting the bunker.

A couple of days later, Crowley stood in the corridor outside the Torture Wing. "Good afternoon, Sire," one of the guards said, bowing deeply.

"Don't 'good afternoon' me," Crowley said irascibly. "It is most decidedly NOT a good afternoon." He gestured for the minion to open the door. "How many is that now?"

"Five," the Demon said, quaking.

"I thought it was four," the King Said.

"It was, until this morning," the guard said, leading him down the torch-lit corridor.

Crowley was fuming. That was five Torture Masters that she had killed now. Five. It was unbelievable.

The guard led him to the room in which they were holding her. "Did you at least disarm her?" Crowley asked the guard.

The Demon looked startled. "No, Your Majesty. She's killed five Torture Masters. Five. We're all afraid to go near her."

Crowley rolled his eyes. "You're supposed to be guards, are you not?" he asked the minion. "Fine. I'll deal with her myself. At least tell me where she's getting the Demon knives. We don't keep those in the torture rooms."

The guard's eyes widened in terror. He really didn't want to answer that question.

Crowley sighed in frustration. He reached out and grabbed the guard's utility belt, pulling the terrified Demon close. "Where's yours?" the King asked him in a clipped tone. But he knew the answer, of course. He snapped his fingers, disintegrating the guard instantly.

Then the King waved his hand, and the door to the cell where Gail was being held flew wide open. She was sitting on the stone floor, covered in blood, playing idly with the Demon knife. She looked up at him, smiling slowly. "Maybe you should check with your Human Resources department," she quipped. "This last one didn't even put up a fight. I think he must have lied on his resume, or at least, he exaggerated. That guy was no Master, believe me."

Crowley was enraged. The little bitch. Who the hell did she think she was? His eyes flashed red for a moment, but then he forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down. She was not going to make him lose his temper. He was the King, and she was a little nothing who only needed to learn her place.

"You are here to do what I want you to do, and you will do it," he said, tight-lipped.

"See, now, that's where you're wrong," Gail said, continuing to play with the Demon knife.

"How many have you tortured so far?" he asked her, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer to the bloody question.

"None," she said sassily. "Nada. Zero. Zilch. Oh, wait, that's only four. As of this morning, it's been upgraded to five." She counted on her fingers. "And counting. Keep on sending them, Crowley. I'm an eternal being, and I've got an axe to grind. I'm just not going to grind it on some poor slob who zigged when he should have zagged. I refuse."

"You can't refuse. I make the rules around here," Crowley said angrily. He snapped his fingers, and the Demon knife disappeared from her hands.

Gail shrugged. "Oh, well. I'll just get another one." She stared at the King. "When will you wake up and realize that I'm not the same little helpless cream puff you got ypur dirty hands on, all those years ago? I refuse to torture people for you, Crowley. Get that through your thick skull. Let's just say the pay sucks, and I don't like the dental plan. How many more Torture Masters are you willing to lose?"

Crowley nodded slowly. "All right, sweetheart. Okay. You're quite correct. I don't want to lose any more Torture Masters. I admit, I put you in the wrong position."

He snapped his fingers again, and suddenly, they were in one of the torture rooms, and she was strapped to a table. "There," Crowley said calmly. "That position suits you much better, I think." He waved his hand, and the door to the room swung open. Demons began to file in, one after the other, all with various weapons and instruments of torture in their hands.

"Line up in an orderly fashion," Crowley instructed the Demons. "There's plenty of work here for all of you. For those of you who don't know, this is Gail. Up until just recently, she was God's wife. You remember who God was, do you not? Our old friend, Castiel. The Angel who is responsible for all of you being here." Crowley looked at Gail triumphantly. "The lineup stretches down several corridors, and it's still growing. Your husband was a busy, busy man." He raised his voice, still looking at Gail. "Do whatever you want to her, but don't break her kneecaps, or do any harm to that wonderfully shrewish voice of hers. I want both in good working order when I come back, in a week or so. When you get down on your knees and tell me you'll be happy to do whatever I say. That's if you still have a voice left, what with all the screaming you'll be doing. See you around, sweetheart."

He snapped his fingers for the last time, disappearing from the room as the first Demon advanced on Gail, with a smile on his face and a gleam in his black eyes.

Oh, this was bad. This was so bad. What the hell was she going to do now? She should never have lipped off to him like that. She knew how touchy Crowley was about being obeyed in his own Kingdom, and all that junk. But she couldn't do it. She just couldn't. There was no way Gail could have taken a weapon and tortured any of those poor souls who had been strapped to the tables, as she was now. Some lines had to be drawn. So, when the Torture Masters had tried to force her, she had turned on them, instead. The so-called guards that stood around in the halls and in the torture rooms were a joke. They were lazy and complacent. Gail had put all that training she'd received at Castiel's hands to good use. She'd observed the guard's demeanour and lack of attention, and then, when the Torture Master had turned his back on her, Gail had attacked the guard, incapacitating him and taking the Demon knife from his belt. Then she'd stabbed the Torture Master, going immediately for the kill. This had gone on every time they had sent replacements. Again and again, they had underestimated her.

But now, she was going to pay the price. Gail watched helplessly as the first Demon approached her, grinning happily. He had a large, serrated instrument of torture in his hand.

"I'm gonna enjoy this," Omar said to her. "Castiel tortured me for information, and when I gave him the information, he killed me, anyway. And then, when I got here, Crowley had me tortured for giving Castiel the information!" He brandished the weapon. "But this is gonna be sweet. What is it you Angels always say? It's better to give than to receive."

Gail pressed her lips together. Suddenly, her quips and all of her bravado had dried up in her throat. Oh, why did she provoke Crowley like that? Did she think that this was some kind of a kids' game that he was playing? This was Hell, and torture and suffering were Crowley's stock-in-trade. That was all too easy to forget while they had been erstwhile allies on Earth, trading banter and sharing a drink. But Cas had told her more than once that she shouldn't let her guard down around Crowley, and of course, Cas had been right.

Omar pointed the tip of the weapon at Gail's eye. "Crowley didn't say anything about your eyeballs, though, did he? Maybe I'll scoop 'em out and eat them, just like grapes. Better still, I'll only take one of them, so you can still watch what I'll be doing to the rest of you."

Gail screwed up her face, bracing herself. She decided to picture Cas in her head. If she concentrated hard enough, hopefully her thoughts of him would help her get through the worst of the agony. She pictured Cas in his suit and trenchcoat, striding into the library area the morning after she had cured him. He was smiling, and his eyes had been a brilliant blue. He had made a beeline for Gail and hugged her to him, and it was the most trite, lamest, Harlequin-romance cliche in the world, but in that moment, Gail had found her home. She never felt warmer, or safer, than when she was in Cas's arms.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes and slid down the sides of her face. I'm sorry, Cas, she thought to herself. You were always so sweet to me, and so strong for me, and I let you down. I should never have come back to Egypt after Gabriel took us away. I was so busy blaming everyone else for your death that I was in denial about the real truth: I killed you. If I hadn't come back, you wouldn't have sacrificed yourself. I killed you, sweetie, and that's the real reason I'm in Hell right now, about to be tortured. It's what I deserve. I have no right to ask you this, but will you please stay with me, and let me look at you? Somehow, I can endure my punishments if I can only just look at you, smiling down at me.

Cas extended his arm towards Omar. "You will not lay a hand on her," he said, and the weapon flew out of Omar's hands. "I tortured you for information because you and your fellow Demons were killing humans by the dozens, for no other reason than that you could. We ascended a girl who was no more than ten years old, who told me that you carved her eyes right out of her head before you killed her, just like you were about to do to my wife. Let's see if you enjoy how that feels." The weapon flew back into Omar's hand and he turned it towards his own face, his eyes bulging in terror. Then he dug the sharp end of the weapon into his own face and started to carve out his own eyes, screaming at the top of his lungs while he did it.

Some of the Demons started to run, while others stood their ground, frozen in shock as the giant hand that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere waved a finger at Omar. They didn't see Castiel, of course; only Gail did, because God knew that such a vision would comfort her.

God flicked his finger at the next Demon in line, as one would flick a tiny insect away. That Demon went flying into the others behind him, and when they got up from the floor, they set upon each other with the weapons that they were holding, like a pack of wolves fighting amongst themselves for a scrap of food.

One Demon broke free while all of this was going on, running toward Gail holding a buzzing chainsaw. "Really?" she said dryly, regaining her sense of humour as she watched Cas fighting all of those Demons. Protecting her, like always. How could she have ever lost hope? "That was a terrible, schlocky movie. Wasn't it, sweetie?"

"Yes, it was," Cas replied. He flicked another finger and the Demon turned the chainsaw back on Itself and cut off Its own arm.

"I suggest you run, while you still have legs," Cas said to him, and the Demon ran off screaming, the chainsaw still whirring in his remaining hand.

The Demons who weren't dead or dismembered had all fled the room by now. Cas walked over to the table where Gail lay, stepping on Omar's stomach on his way. Omar made an "Oof" sound. He had stopped screaming now, but he was feeling blindly around on the floor for his eyeballs.

"Looking for these?" Cas said to him, picking up Omar's eyeballs from the floor. He tossed them onto Omar's chest, then turned towards Gail. "I'm sorry, my Daughter," God said. "That last one was more Gabriel than Castiel. Please don't be too hard on Gabriel, when you see him next. He's a work in progress, much like you were when you faced down Crowley for the first time. You've come a long, long way, Gail. Don't give up now. Anything worth having is worth fighting for, wouldn't you agree? Believe in Me, and you shall be delivered. Use love to fuel your fight, not hate. There's already too much of the latter around." Then he smiled, turning back into Cas for a moment. "But don't hesitate to kick ass if you need to, either. Just like I taught you. I'm so proud of you, my darling. Our love will save us both." He leaned down and kissed her gently on the forehead. Then he waved his hand, releasing her bonds, and then he vanished.

Gail sat up, her body trembling. She looked down at all the dead and maimed Demons, stunned. Then she started to smile. "Thank you for the blessings, Father," she said out loud. "And thanks for the love. I'll be sure to pass that along to Cas when I see him."

She hopped off the table and walked out of the room. She'd almost made it out of the Torture Wing when Crowley's men grabbed her.

The King of Hell was staring at Gail, and his gaze was penetrating. "I have no idea how you managed that," he said in a clipped tone. "Nor am I even going to ask. Fine. You win, then. You are free to go."

Gail started to smile, but then, Crowley smirked. "You are free to go wherever you wish - here, in Hell. Clearly, you have had your fill of the workplace. A little Princess like you isn't used to the grindstone, obviously. You've had big, strong men looking out after you, your whole life. I applaud your tenacity, but you will lose, Gail. Know this. You will lose."

But she was serene, even though her heart had sunk momentarily when she'd thought that he was going to release her. Fine. Let him be stubborn. Gail had her faith back. God had promised her deliverance. She would see Cas again.

"I see that look in your eyes, that little spark of hope," Crowley went on. "It'll soon be extinguished. I'm letting you loose in Hell, but I'm sending out a proclamation: There will be a bounty on your head. Any one of my minions who is able to kill you will receive anything they desire from me. Anything. Carte blanche. A blank cheque. That will be quite the motivation. You'll be beset at every turn. As you've said, we're all eternal beings here. Even your husband had trouble sustaining that kind of constant vigilance, when he and Dean were in Purgatory."

Gail continued to stare at him. She had vowed to hold her tongue, at the risk of inflaming him even further. She felt a flutter of fear in her stomach. Well, the Father had said that she would be delivered. He just hadn't said when. She sighed inwardly.

Crowley was looking at her suspiciously. She was being way too quiet. Normally, he would count that as a victory. But, this was Gail. She was the most obstinate, obdurate, infuriating woman he had ever met. At this point, he was actually on the verge of feeling a grudging admiration for her. But it had become a battle of wills now, and the King could be obstinate, too.

He snapped his fingers, and Gail disappeared from his office.

A few days later, Gail was standing over her latest victim, gasping for breath. Holy moly. Crowley hadn't been wrong. She ran her bloody fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face. Great. Now her hair was dripping with blood, too. She tried to remember what a nice, hot shower felt like. Hell wasn't big on cleanliness. That whole next to Godliness thing, probably. She was surprised her enemies couldn't smell her coming by now, before they even saw her.

When Crowley had set her to wander Hell unarmed, the first place she had gone had been back to the Torture Wing, to get a Demon knife from a guard there. Despite the victories she'd had there, it had been surprisingly easy. Thank goodness for slow, slack-jawed Demons.

Then she'd spent the next few days going on the offensive, killing every Demon she saw, just on general principles. Some of them had put up a fiercer struggle than others, and a couple of times, she had almost lost the gamble. But Gail had pictured Dean in her mind, telling her to take the fight to those sons of bitches. The best defense was a good offense. Do unto them before they could do unto you. They had talked about it many times in the bunker and again in Europe, during the year of the death squads. Gail had earned her stripes during that little tour of duty, that was for sure. She had been angry at Cas for a lot of things at that time, not the least of which was the fact that he had saddled her with the responsibility of being the leader of her team. But now, she could see why he had done that. He had prepared her for what she was facing now. Bless him for that. Bless him for a lot of things. She would endure this for as long as she had to, if Cas was the prize at the bottom of this messed-up Crackerjack box. She would kill every black-eyed bastard in Hell, up to and including Crowley himself, if she could just have Cas hold her in his arms again. If she could even just make sure he was okay, wherever he was now.

But, boy, was she tired. She looked around furtively, but there was no movement, so she bent down quickly to search the pockets of the Demon she had just killed. Sometimes they had weapons stashed on their person, even though they weren't supposed to. Occasionally, she found other contraband, too. Wow. Crowley had no idea what was going on behind his back, half the time.

She opened Its jacket and checked the inside pocket. For a second, what she was feeling didn't quite register. It was so far away from anything she had expected to find that she almost didn't recognize the cell phone when she pulled it out.

Dean sat at the library table, drinking from a big glass of whiskey. He was drowning his sorrows, yet again. Life had sucked for all of them since Cas and Gail's double funeral, and it just kept getting suckier and suckier.

Sam was in his room, pouting. When Dean had gotten back, his brother had told him about Frank's visit, complete with the sad eyes and the puppydog face. Then Dean had told Sam that he was contemplating going over there and kicking Frank's ass. The guy was being a dick to Rob, too. Dean had taken Rob out for a burger and a beer after their stint at the shooting range, and Rob had told Dean how much life sucked at their house now. His Dad was drinking way too much, and he was angry all the time. Dean understood Frank's pain, but Gail's brother wasn't the only one who was suffering, was he? Rob idolized his dad, and Frank was pushing the kid aside. That particular subject was a real soft spot for Dean, for obvious reasons.

But Sam had practically begged Dean not to do that. Think of how Gail would feel, to see two of her brothers fighting like that. Sammy'd had tears in the corners of his eyes, and he'd been talking about Gail in the present tense again, which worried Dean. Then his brother had rushed down the hall to his room, slamming the door.

Dean had poured himself a large drink of whiskey, slammed it down, and then poured another. Then he took the cell phone out of his shirt pocket. He'd been keeping it in his room on the nightstand, and every morning when he got dressed, he would slip it in his pocket, taking it with him wherever he went.

Dean laid the phone gently on the table in front of him now. Cas's cell phone. Just before they'd interred the couple's vessels, Dean had impulsively reached into Cas's pocket and taken his friend's cell phone out, transferring it to his own shirt pocket. Now, it never left his side. Dean had no idea why he was keeping it. What did he think, that Cas was going to call him from the Afterlife, or something? But if anybody tried to take it from Dean right now, anybody, he would probably have to kill them.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Dean just about fell off his chair. Holy crap. It had to be a wrong number. And how was the phone even working, anyway? It occurred to Dean now to wonder how Cas had even been paying for the stupid thing in the first place. But then again, he'd been God. He'd probably had Kevin hack into the phone company website and pay the bill in perpetuity.

Dean leaned forward cautiously to look at the Call Display. Unknown Number. Of course. Ahh, what the hell. He picked it up.

Gail found an empty room and slipped quietly into it, moving to the far corner. She prayed silently as she turned on the phone. There was battery life, and as she swiped the screen, she saw that there was a phone icon. So far, so good. She touched the screen, and a dial pad came up.

But then, she froze. What was Dean's number? Or Sam's? Frank's? Crap. Crap! She couldn't recall any of them. Cas had had all of their numbers programmed into his phone. Sure, Gail had been the one who had actually done that in the first place, but that didn't mean that she remembered them now.

Dammit! She was wasting valuable time here! Somebody was going to find her, any second. Think. Think! The only cell number she knew off by heart was Cas's. Which was kind of dumb, when you thought about it, because she'd never called him on the phone. Why would she? They were almost always together, and even when they hadn't been, they had just talked to each other over Angel Radio, or on their own frequency, if they'd wanted a private conversation. Angel Radio didn't work in Hell, of course. She'd tried it when she had first gotten here, just to cover all her bases.

In desperation, Gail dialed Cas's number. Maybe, just maybe, one of the guys had it. It could happen, she told herself. It could happ-

"Hello?"

Silence. "Hello?" Dean tried again. Nothing.

Gail was so surprised that she had been shocked into silence. But then, when she heard the gruff baritone a second time, she started to cry. "Dean?" she wailed.

Dean snatched the phone up from the table, gripping it so tightly that he was afraid it would shatter to pieces in his hand. "Gail? Gail! What the hell? Where are you?"

"Ummm...Hell," she replied. "Didn't Bobby tell you?"

"Yeah, of course he - " Dean started to say irritably. Boy, had he ever. Bobby had gathered them all here right after the hearing and told them, explaining what Gail had said, and what he had ended up doing. Predictably enough, Frank had been livid, but it was Sam who had actually grabbed Bobby by the shirt front and came within a hair of punching their old friend right in the face. Bobby had growled, "Try it, Boy," and Sammy had backed off. Yeah, Dean remembered that day, all right. The beginning of the suckage.

"How are you even talking to me, right now?" Dean asked her.

"It doesn't matter," Gail said, eyeing the door nervously. "I've got to get out of here, Dean. I'm lucky I'm still in one piece, but I won't be for long if I stay here. Crowley's pulling out all the stops. Not only did he refuse to revive Cas, but he's got a vendetta against me now. I'm gonna be toast if I don't get out of here somehow."

"Crap," Dean muttered. He was sweating bullets now. Crowley with a vendetta? Not good. He could only imagine what she was being subjected to there.

"You and Sam have both been here. Frank, too," Gail said pleadingly. "There's got to be a Portal, like Heaven's got, doesn't there?"

Dean frowned. How the hell should he know? Cas had come into Hell and gotten him. His stomach hurt now. "Gail, I don't know," he said, thinking furiously. "Sam! Sammy!" he yelled. "Get in here! Now!"

"I can't stay on the phone, Dean," Gail said shakily. "Someone's gonna find me in a minute. I have to stay on the move. It's like Europe here. Like Purgatory. I have to watch my back every second."

Dean felt sick. "OK, do what you have to do. Can you call me in an hour?"

Gail checked the display on the phone. Incredibly, it showed a time. Although whose time it was, was unclear. Still, she blessed the Father. This had to be His doing. None of this should be working. None of it. "OK, Dean," she said. She lingered a moment, reluctant to sever the connection. This was literally her lifeline that she held in her hand. "I'll call you back, Dean," she said hurriedly. "Please, try to figure out anything you can. Please." Then she hung up.

Sam came tearing into the library area just as Gail was hanging up on her end. Dean told him about her call, and Sam's heart stopped. "And you hung up on her?!" Sam yelled.

"Slow your roll, Sammy," Dean growled. He explained quickly about Gail's call. "She's gonna call back in an hour. We've got to figure out what to do by then."

But Sam knew of no Portal, either. The two brothers sat there, wracking their brains.

"Bobby," Sam said suddenly. "He was in Lucifer's cage too, remember? Plus, he used to be God. I guess, technically, he is again, if Heaven's got rules of succession. Maybe he'll know."

Dean called Bobby, but Bobby had no clue. He was excited that they'd heard from Gail, but horrified to hear about the rest. He could read between the lines. Wait until he got his hands on Crowley. "Wait a second. Lemme ask Chuck. I'll call you back."

Bobby popped over to the library. Chuck's heart raced when Bobby told him, but he tried to focus. "Yeah, they used to have a Portal, Bobby. I escaped from it. But Crowley sealed it after that."

"Yeah, he did. But there's another one," Paul said. He came out from between two bookshelves. "Sorry, gentlemen. I just happened to overhear."

"There's another one?" Chuck said, his pulse quickening. "Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure," Paul said emphatically. "When the King and me were tight, he told me there's another, secret Portal, that nobody knows about."

Paul was getting excited now. He'd been crushed when they had brought poor Castiel's body to lay in state here in Heaven. It was funny, really. Paul hadn't shed one tear when Castiel had killed his father. Not one. Yet when Paul had looked at Castiel's body on that bier, he had wept unashamedly. And the worst part was that his little Boo hadn't even been there, because she had been sent down to Hell. And while Paul understood maybe more than most why she had done what she had done, that didn't make it any less heartbreaking.

"Where is it, Paul?" Bobby asked the former Demon.

"In the closet behind the coal room," Paul replied.

Bobby and Chuck looked at each other. "OK, I'll bite," Bobby said dryly. "Where's the coal room?"

Paul shrugged. "Beats me. My face might be black, but I never picked up no shovel when I was there." But then, he frowned. "I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I didn't mean that." Henri had talked to Paul about making those types of comments, and the younger Angel was getting better, but he still had his moments. He needed little Gail here, shaking her finger at him. Paul's heart was heavy. So were the hearts of a lot of the Angels right now.

Bobby and Chuck both let out frustrated breaths. Neither of them knew, either. Bobby swore viciously. They were so close to being able to help her. "Come on, boys," he said. He grabbed both men and winked them down to the bunker.

The whole group of them were talking animatedly about Hell a minute later, like it was a bank, and they were planning a heist. Each man was putting aside his personal feelings about the place, focusing on helping Gail. But it was frustrating. None of them had any freaking idea where the coal room could be. Would Gail know, maybe?

"Holy crap!" Dean yelled suddenly. "I can't believe I forgot! Chuck, go get Frank, and bring him here."

Under ordinary circumstances, Chuck would have been a little put out by Dean's ordering him around like that. But, the clock was ticking. He popped out and came back a moment later, holding Frank by the arm.

"Frank, you worked in the coal room in Hell, right?" Sam said without preliminary.

"Yeah," Frank answered, just as succinctly.

Sam slid a pad of paper and a pen over to Gail's brother. "Draw us a map, and make it as detailed as possible," he instructed Frank. "Gail's supposed to be calling us back in about ten minutes. We'll have you explain to her how to get there, if she can tell you where she's at." His lips twitched briefly. "And then you can tell me to eff off again, if you want, once we get our girl back. Deal?"

Frank smiled grimly. "Deal. Better still, I'll just get Gail to do it. Give me that." He grabbed the legal pad and started to sketch.

Gail found another deserted room from which to call, and she was thrilled to hear Frank's voice when she did.

"Are you OK, kiddo?" he asked her, and the tears started to flow down his cheeks when he heard her voice.

"Yeah," she said over the Speaker, "and, no. Did you guys figure out how to get me out of here?"

"There's a Portal in the closet by the coal room, Boo," Paul spoke up. "Do you know where that is?"

"No," she replied, frustrated.

"Don't worry. Frank drew us a map," Bobby said. "He's gonna walk you through it. Are you OK, Gail? Did that bastard hurt you?"

"I"M gonna hurt you, if you don't shut up," Frank said through gritted teeth. "We're wasting time now. Besides, I think you've done enough."

"Settle down, Frank," Chuck admonished him. "I was there at the hearing, too. It wasn't like that."

"Do you need me here for this conversation, or should I just call back?" Gail said tartly. "Remember me? Running for my life, here?" She sighed. "Look, when I get back, we'll all have to have a kiss-and-make-up session. But don't blame Bobby for my predicament, Frank. I asked for this. But it backfired on me, big time. I guess I'd better go easier on Cas, the next time he makes a mistake."

The men all looked at each other, alarmed. Cas? What the hell was she talking about? Was she delusional? Chuck's guts were churning. He remembered when she had sat beside Cas's body in Heaven, after the tribunal. She had held his hand and talked to him as if he was still alive, and she'd had to be dragged kicking and screaming away from him.

But they ignored what they'd heard. The priority right now was to get Gail home, away from Crowley and whatever he was subjecting her to in Hell. Then they could help her through the grieving process, once she got here.

"OK, I'll get you there," Frank said, focusing on his map. "Stick with me, kiddo. Where are you right now?"

"I'm in the Machiavelli Wing, near the snake pits," she replied.

Sam rolled his eyes. The Machiavelli Wing? Was Crowley kidding with that? Sam would have to congratulate the King on his wit, just before he stuck the Demon knife in his chest.

Frank's heart sank. "Crap. You're in the Southwest area." He pointed to where she was on the map, as the other men craned their necks to look. "You have to be in the Northeast corner." He moved his finger across. "Here."

"You realize I can't actually SEE you now, right?" Gail said dryly, and Frank smiled wearily. "Sorry, kiddo," he said to his sister.

Gail looked at the phone screen for an instant. "I'm almost out of battery life, you guys."

At that moment, Dean felt a sharp pain in his chest as he remembered Cas, telling him that he was almost out of minutes on his phone. The pain was so bad that he thought he might actually be having a heart attack. He missed his best friend so damn much. Losing Cas had been like losing his right arm. How could Dean be expected to go on living without Cas in his life?

"Just tell me the best you can the way you think I should go, and then I'd better hang up and try it," Gail was saying now. "It's a miracle I haven't been discovered yet."

Frank started giving her directions, but Paul came around the table now and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gail's brother. "No, you're wrong," Paul said bluntly. "There's a shortcut." He pointed to the map and then lifted his head towards Cas's cell phone, which was on Speaker in the middle of the table. "It's Paul, here. Your brother's giving you the long way. Go left, not right. Cut through the oil boiling area, take a right at the hellhound kennel, and then you've got a long corridor to get through, which leads to the coal room. Be on your guard in that corridor, though. Quite a few of my former co-workers know about that shortcut."

Frank frowned. "I didn't."

"They probably never really saw you as 'one of the guys'," Paul said to him. "You have to be a real Demon's Demon to get into the club with some of these guys." Then Paul looked at the phone again. "OK, kiddo?" he said. "You got that?"

"Hey! You can't call her 'kiddo'!" Frank quipped, unable to help himself. "That's OUR word, not yours."

Gail laughed, and then she clapped a hand over her mouth. She blessed Frank for the first genuine laugh she'd had in forever, but she couldn't really afford to make noise, either.

"I've got to go," Gail said into the phone. "I love all of you. With Father's help, I'll see you soon." Then she hung up, putting the phone in her pocket.

It was only after she'd set out that Gail realized that she had no idea where that Portal led to.

An indeterminate amount of time later, an exhausted Gail was finally standing in front of the coal room. She was even more saturated in blood than she'd been before, and she was almost out of breath. She leaned against the wall, panting, elbowing the blood out of her face. Boy, Paul hadn't been kidding about that corridor. She'd had to hack and chop her way out of there. There were only two things that had helped to give her an advantage: the element of surprise, and the fact that none of the working stiffs who used the shortcut had been armed. Demons were Demons, and Crowley had a strict No Tolerance policy. The King didn't want his worker bees to get into petty squabbles and the like with weapons handy, because the King didn't want to run the risk of having disputes solved with lethal consequences. Therefore, the worker Demons had been caught unprepared for a short little kamikaze woman, going down the corridor like a buzz saw. As it was, Gail was bruised and battered, extremely bloody, and she thought she might have a dislocated shoulder.

But she was finally here, and she realized she'd better not rest for too long. However, just as she was reaching out to open the door to the coal room, she heard a man clearing his throat behind her. Oh, no.

She turned around slowly, and sure enough, Crowley was standing there. "Oh, come on!" Gail wailed. "You have GOT to be kidding me!"

He just stood there, looking at her. Not saying a word. Just staring, as if...As if what? His expression was impossible to read. Oh, crap. She was screwed.

Finally, he said, "How many did you kill?"

She was disarmed by his calm demeanour. But there was no sense in lying. It didn't matter if the answer was one, or one thousand. Her punishment was still going to be the same. Crap. They would have to invent a new number for how many different ways of screwed she was.

"I didn't stop to count," she said matter-of-factly. "Dozens, anyway."

"Dozens," Crowley repeated. "Huh." He waved his hand, and Gail flinched, but a moment later, she was merely completely cleaned of blood.

Crowley walked slowly, nearing her, looking her up and down. "And barely a scratch on you," he remarked.

Gail was looking at him with trepidation. This was eerie. He was too calm, too soft-spoken. This was almost more cruel than yelling at her, or putting her in chains. The dread was building inside her. What was he going to do to her now?

"You really are a clever little thing," Crowley continued, still in that calm voice. "However did you find out about that Portal?" He snapped his fingers, and the Demon knife and cell phone she'd been using were in his hands. "Been calling an old acquaintance of mine, I presume?" he said, waggling the cell phone. "How IS Paul, anyway? Has he assimilated, or is he still seeing racists around every corner?"

"He's getting better," she said, still eyeing him warily. "I guess it helps that Heaven's not all white any more. I mean...you know what I mean."

Crowley nodded. "You know, I tried everything I could think of to break you, and yet, here you stand."

"Actually, I'm just about ready to fall down," Gail admitted. Screw it. "That last corridor was a doozy."

"And here you are, on the precipice of victory, and here I am, spoiling it all," Crowley said in this new, casual tone he had apparently adopted. "But I can't let you go through that Portal."

Gail sighed. "Of course you can't. So just tell me, already: What are you going to do to me now?"

"I'm going to give you what you want," he replied. "Well, partly, anyway. I'm going to let you go. But, there are conditions."

She rolled her eyes. She didn't believe him, not for one moment. But she supposed she could play along, if for no other reason than to prolong the start of the inevitable torture she would be undergoing soon. "Yeah? Well, if your conditions are for me to kill any of my loved ones, I'll just stay, thank you."

"You're such a heroine," Crowley said sardonically. "No, it's nothing like that. In fact, one of my conditions is just the opposite. Whenever any of your many Knights in shining armour tries to kill me - and we both know they will - you will stop them. Consider yourself my personal bodyguard, from now on. The Kevin to my Whitney. And that includes your husband, when you get him back. And I have no doubt that you will. None. Just think how much sweeter it will be when you do, knowing that I didn't lift a finger to help you. Knowing that you don't owe me for that, too."

Gail glared at him. "Okay, you said conditions. Plural. What else?"

Crowley shrugged. "You will owe me a favour. I will decide what I want, when I want it, and you will be unable to refuse. If you agree to both of these conditions, I will take you to my office, we will seal our pact, and then I will send you back to Earth. Agreed?"

She eyed him suspiciously. "You sound like you might even mean what you're saying. What changed your mind?"

"You. You're a troublemaker. A giant pain in my arse. I'm letting you go because I just want to be rid of you. It's that simple," Crowley lied.

Gail still didn't really believe him, but really, what were her alternatives? She pointed to the coal room door. "Just out of curiosity, if I had made it through that Portal, where does it lead?" she asked the King.

Crowley smirked. "Oh, you don't want to go through there. It leads to a terrible, agonizing death."

Her mouth fell open. "What would be the point to that?"

He shrugged. "Occasionally, I let slip to certain individuals that the Portal exists, just to test them. If they take the bait, it's an excellent way of taking care of any traitors, or deserters."

Gail shook her head, laughing shortly. "Wow. I have no idea what to even say about that," she said, astonished.

"You SHOULD say 'thank you'," he retorted. "I could have let you walk through it. In fact, I almost did. But I think this new arrangement will be much more beneficial to me, in the end." He waved his hand, and the two of them were standing in his office. "So, do we have a deal?"

"What did you mean when you said we have to seal the pact?" she asked him warily.

"You have trust issues. I suppose I can understand that," Crowley said, smirking again. "We have a drink together, and I put a teeny-tiny mark on you, and then you'll be entirely free to go."

"Mark?" she said, alarmed. "What kind of a mark?"

"Just a spell," he said offhandedly. "It will ensure that you don't have an attack of conscience, once you and hubby are lovingly reunited and he restores you to Angel status."

Gail was startled. She hadn't even thought of that. "What am I now?" she asked him, dazed. "A Demon?"

Crowley barked out a short laugh. "Hardly," he said scornfully. "If you were, I could have worked with that. But it would appear that you are still afforded certain...protections, which I did not foresee. When I send you back to Earth, you will be a human. But I have no doubt that the next time I see you, you will have been returned to your former Angelic glory. Do we have a deal?"

Gail sighed. "Yes. Fine. We have a deal."

"Good," the King said. He reached out to touch her and she cringed, but held her ground. "Where would you like it?" he inquired.

She looked at him blankly for a moment. Oh. Right. If his stupid tattoo or whatever was the only thing standing between her and the bunker, she would wear it. As far as being human, that was going to be weird after all this time, but she could deal. She had a plan. All she needed to do was get to that bunker.

"Put it behind my ear, under the hairline," she said to him.

Crowley nodded. She didn't want anyone to see it. Fair enough. It would still work. If he asked her for the favour and she refused, the mark would glow red hot, and then it would burrow into her and poison her, right up until the favour was performed, or she died. He reached around her head and touched her where she had requested. She felt a momentary sharp pain, and then he took his hand away. "Now, we'll have a drink to seal the pact, and I'll send you on your way," the King said. He waved his hand, and she was holding a drink. "It's rye and ginger. Your favourite. Drink up," Crowley prompted. "No poison. I promise."

OK, this was getting creepy again. It was almost as if they were standing around at a party, or something. Crowley's tone was pleasant, almost as if they were on friendly terms. She clenched her glass tightly, resisting the urge to hurl the drink right in his stupid, smug face. But she was so close now. If he was going to deliver. If. Then again, if there WAS poison in the glass, at this point she would rather drink it than have to stay here for one more minute.

Crowley snapped his fingers, and there was a drink in his hand now too. He clinked his glass against hers, and the two of them drank. Then Crowley snapped his fingers again, and both glasses were gone. "I'm sure you're anxious to be on your way," he said to her, "and I will oblige you. I just wanted to say that there may come a time when you will look at things from a slightly different point of view. When that day comes, remember that I spared you now, when I didn't have to."

Then, before Gail had the chance to figure out what he might mean by that, the King of Hell waved his hand over her, suffusing her with the red glow. Then he snapped his fingers again, and then she was gone.


	2. As Long As He Needs Me

Chapter 2 - As Long As He Needs Me

Crowley sat down behind his desk, letting out a long breath. He looked at the decanter. He poured himself another, but there wasn't enough alcohol in the known universe for the way he was feeling right now.

Earlier that day, he had been summoned to the crossroads by a very powerful spell. Normally, he wouldn't have attended personally without knowing who was on the other side of that spell. But he was bored, and he was curious. There were very few individuals who were that powerful, and who would have used such an ancient invocation. It was way above Moose and Squirrel's academic level, Castiel was dead, and if God the Father wanted to thump Crowley on the head, He would just simply bust his office door down, as he'd done before.

"I want the Codex back," Raguel said without preliminary when Crowley surfaced.

Crowley eyed him balefully. Now he wished he hadn't come. Boy, did he hate this guy. He'd almost rather deal with Castiel. It was funny, though; both men had this bad habit of talking to the King as if he were their underling.

"I believe the customary greeting is 'Good morning'," Crowley said coolly, "and in my case, it's usually followed with 'Your Majesty'."

Raguel let out a breath. "Fine. Good morning," he said, tight-lipped.

"I thought you were going to bring me the codices, so that I could translate them for you," Crowley said, playing innocent. "Did you not kill Castiel? Excellent job, by the way, although my mother still lives."

"The opportunity presented itself," Raguel said, shrugging.

"So, tell me: how did you manage to kill God?" Crowley asked the Archangel, continuing the ruse.

"I will tell you that it was very difficult," Raguel boasted. "But, I am an Archangel of the Lord God. I can do many things that ordinary beings cannot."

"I'm sure you can, but you're a terrible liar," Crowley said bluntly. "You did not kill Castiel. Plus, my mother is still alive, as I have already pointed out. Therefore, you get nothing."

"What do you mean?" Raguel raged. "We had a deal!"

"A deal is a two-way street," Crowley pointed out. "I repeat, you did not kill Castiel. He killed himself, because you got chesty and tried to compel him to kill his wife. I could have told you what the outcome of that little scenario would be. Now you have nullified your own deal."

"How do YOU know what happened?" Raguel asked the King suspiciously. "You weren't there."

"Castiel's little wife is a guest of mine. That's how," Crowley retorted.

"God's wife is in Hell," Raguel said, his voice laden with sarcasm.

Crowley shrugged. "Believe what you want, but it's true. But I fail to see where that's any concern of yours. By the time I get through with her, she will be of no threat to you."

Raguel's eyes narrowed. "I knew you hated Castiel, but I did not know that you felt the same way about your sister."

"In-law," Crowley corrected him automatically. "Sister-in-law. Although I suppose that doesn't technically apply any more. In any event, what I do to her in my own Kingdom is none of your business. You and I are done, unless you can come up with another service that you can actually perform for me."

"I offered to kill your mother, did I not?" Raguel said.

"Then where is her corpse?" Crowley asked him.

"I will locate her, and then I will kill her, I swear to you," Raguel said fervently. And he meant it, too. He had a score to settle, and codices to retrieve.

"You will locate her? You mean she's not with you?" Crowley peered closely at Raguel's agitated expression, and then the light dawned. "She stole the codices, didn't she?" he said, shaking his head slowly.

"Yes," Raguel said, through clenched teeth.

Almost despite himself, Crowley barked out a laugh. Raguel looked at him, shocked. The King of Hell, laughing? Had Armageddon begun, after all? But this reaction of his angered Raguel even more, and he was further enraged when Crowley said, "You Archangels think you are so superior. Yet here you stand like a fool, with no Codex and no codices, ordering me around like I'm your underling. You couldn't even kill Castiel, contrary to your lofty promises. You're not an Archangel, you're a joke."

"As if you are any better," Raguel shot back. "I am trying to create a new and better existence, a Paradise that will be devoid of vermin like you. Your mother told me all about you, 'Fergus'. You are the joke. You are a tin pot dictator, an ineffectual leader whose subjects rebel behind your back. Your own family all hate you. And it is no wonder, seeing as how you treat them. I knew that you were a repugnant individual, but to torture your own sister, for no good reason? You - "

" - Sister-in-law," Crowley corrected the Archangel again, annoyed. What was the point of this diatribe? And why was he even standing here listening to it? Was he THAT bored?

Raguel started to smile, that slow, creepy smile which all but disfigured his face. Crowley was quite right. Raguel had come here with the faint hope that he could bluff the King into returning the Codex to him. But Raguel had nothing to bring to the bargaining table now, and they both knew it. But that didn't mean that he couldn't leave Crowley with a very special parting gift.

The Archangel waved his hand, and Crowley came to him. The King's guard had been down, so he hadn't had the chance to react. He raised his hand to defend himself now, but once he got close to Raguel, the Archangel merely put two of his fingers on Crowley's forehead. "Let me show you what the real joke is," he said to the King.

Raguel showed Crowley everything that had happened after Rowena had decided not to go to the Solstice celebration, and then the true events subsequent to that, when Rowena had given birth to twins, and the man in the shadows had taken the girl away. But not before her mother had named her: Priscilla.

No. No way. Raguel was attempting to modify his mind. Crowley threw a wall up in his mind to block what Raguel was showing him, almost as a fighter would block a punch. But then, projected on the wall, Crowley could see the interior of a pub, and a bedraggled young woman, sitting by the fire. He could see himself buying her a drink and a meal, and taking her to his home. Then he could see her with John Alden, telling Fergus that the two of them were sailing to the New World. That woman had more aliases then one of Charles Manson's followers, but her devotion to her blue-eyed husband was no less fanatical. Priscilla Alden, aka Guinevere, aka Nicki, aka Gail.

Crowley staggered back from Raguel. "You're making this up," he said in a shocked tone.

"Actually, I am not," Raguel said calmly. "Ask your mother, if you do not believe what I have just shown you. She didn't know about it until just recently, but she does now. Or ask your father, the High Priest. I imagine that he still roams the Earth. Creatures like him and your mother and even yourself tend to see to their own survival, above all else. Perhaps your sister is the same way, seeing as she comes from the same lineage."

Then Crowley had snapped his fingers and disappeared from the crossroads, because for the first time in ages, he'd had no retort to offer. Now he sat in his office after having sent Gail back to Earth, drinking glass after glass of scotch, trying to work out how he felt now.

Gail was his sister. The girl he had kidnapped and nearly converted, until she'd decided she liked the taste of Angel food cake better. The dewy-eyed damsel who the Winchesters, Castiel, and Lucifer had all combined to turn into a warrior queen, capable of getting the jump on Demon guards and Torture Masters. The woman he'd had a love-hate relationship with over the centuries...All right, to be fair, it was probably more like hate-hate from her perspective, although the two of them had had their moments. Crowley had tried to groom her, seduce her, make her suffer, befriend her, torture her, and kill her, and none of those things had even slowed her down. She was infuriating; a pint-sized pain in his trousers that he couldn't subjugate, nor could he seem to shake.

Gail was Crowley's sister. When he'd gotten back to Hell from his meeting with Raguel, he'd received reports of screaming coming from the corridor that led to the coal room, and he'd known instantly. She had finally gotten a hold of one of his minions to whom the King had given a cell phone, and she had contacted her people. Crowley knew how clever she and Moose were, and he'd imagined that Frank would be around the bunker to help out, too. Frank had toiled for Crowley in the coal room after he'd been busted down from a Knight, and of course, the Angels now had Paul on their side also, who was one of the remaining few who'd known about the hidden Portal. So, as an individual who was already at least several moves ahead on the chessboard, Crowley had popped over to the coal room, waiting for her, and she had not disappointed him.

As soon as he'd laid eyes on her on the heels of this newfound information, Crowley had felt the surge of several feelings at once. He'd felt a sense of pride at what a fierce fighter she had become. Certainly, she'd had a little divine help when she had been strapped to the table in the Torture Room, but everything else that she had accomplished here, she had done herself. Many of the Demons he had in his employ, even those higher up in his organization, could not have done any better.

He had mixed feelings about this whole thing. Castiel was his brother, from way back at the time of the Beginning. They'd had bad blood between them since then and, even though Crowley admitted that he had fired the first shot across the bow, there had been plenty of animosity on both sides ever since. Gail hadn't come into the mix until centuries later, but when she had, the three of them had been locked up in the world's most dysfunctional dance ever since. Gail was Crowley's sister, but he'd had designs on her for aeons. How messed up was that? Oh, well. As the King of Hell, Crowley had certainly seen worse. It wasn't as if he'd known she was his sister all that time, and still pursued her.

This explained a lot, though. It explained why Gail was one of the least Angelic Angels Crowley had ever met. That was probably one reason they had been able to get along so well at times. She drank, she had a razor-sharp tongue, and it was clear that she loved the pleasures of the flesh, because she certainly led Castiel around by his dangly bits. Crowley had often marveled at how such a woman had been able to come up on the Righteous side of things, more often than not. He had to grudgingly admit that her and Castiel's love was genuine, though. It had to be; there was no way it could have sustained all this time if it had not been.

Which brought Crowley round to how he truly felt about his brother's demise. He had mixed feelings about that, too. A large part of him had felt like dancing a jig when he'd felt Castiel's essence leave his vessel. Had Raguel actually been able to take the great warrior down? But then, when Crowley'd found out what had actually happened on that field, things had gotten a little more complicated. In his view, Raguel had not accomplished anything to boast about. He had simply taken one of Father's toys and watched as the ring did what it was destined to do. Then, Castiel had done what he'd had to do, falling on his own Angel blade rather than kill his own wife. There had been no epic battle. It was like getting to the end of a ripping good book only to find a "to be continued...". Because Crowley had no doubt now that Castiel would be back. Absolutely none.

But that hadn't stopped the King from taking his frustrations out on Gail, once she'd landed in his domain. He would never admit so even under point of torture in his own dungeon, but a large part of Crowley had blamed her for so many things that Crowley was unable to do anything about. So he'd lashed out, projecting his own unresolved feelings about Castiel onto her simply because she was at hand.

But then, a funny thing happened. As Gail survived challenge after challenge, Crowley began to root for her, subconsciously at first, and then more openly. It was almost like rooting for Eddie The Eagle at the Olympics. That was why he had given those cell phones to a few of his minions. If she could earn her way to the Portal, he would consider striking up a deal with her.

She had indeed accomplished the task, and when the King saw her face once he'd confronted her outside the coal room, he'd known he had to let her go. But he wasn't going to do so for free, either, because that was not his way.

So Crowley had lied to Gail. The Portal didn't lead to an agonizing death at all. He'd just said that so she would feel like she had no choice but to take his deal. Crowley was thinking ten steps ahead on that board, as usual. Just because he'd felt this damnable tug of sentiment for his sister, that didn't mean that she would feel the same way about him, if and when she ever found out about their true relationship. He hadn't even begun to consider THAT yet. But Crowley's priority had always been Crowley, and he'd had to make sure that he wasn't having to fend off numerous assassination attempts from all of the men in his sister's life. Also, he'd been thinking about those codices. Raguel and Rowena had obviously had a parting of the ways, and Mummy Dearest was far too slippery for Crowley to approach directly. It was much too risky to attempt, for if she had those codices, she might just be apt to burn them first, rather than let her son get hold of them. But Gail might be able to use some of her considerable wiles to obtain the documents and deliver them to the King. Her husband wouldn't like it, but that was just too bad, wasn't it? Crowley was one hundred percent certain that Gail was now going to set her laser focus on getting Castiel back somehow, and he was also one hundred percent certain that she would achieve her goal. The chances were excellent that Crowley had just royally screwed himself by letting her go. When Castiel came back, once he and his little wife had climbed out of their loving bed of reunion, Crowley's brother was going to be looking for the blood in the water. The only consolation Crowley had was that it was probably going to be Raguel that he would go looking for first.

Crowley poured another drink, wondering how his sister was faring at the bunker.

It was pouring rain when she'd landed, appearing suddenly in back of the bunker. After a moment's disorientation, Gail imagined with grim humour that if someone had been sitting in one of the lawn chairs, she would have scared the crap out of them. She also took a second to wonder why he couldn't have at least tucked her under the overhang. Great. He'd terrorized her, tried to torture her, and set her on the run for her life, and now, she was going to die of pneumonia.

She ran towards the bunker to seek shelter, and in her haste, she tripped over the stone marker that Dean had put in the ground to mark Cas's grave. "Ow!" Gail exclaimed, sweeping her soaking wet hair away from her face to see what she had tripped on. She looked down at the two graves, side by side, and she felt a pain in her heart that was so acute she nearly fell to her knees. But she couldn't afford to indulge herself in grief right now. She had a job to do, and she had to keep moving.

"I'll be back for you in a bit, sweetie," Gail said, bending over to touch the stone marker. Then she ran towards the bunker door.

She pounded on the steel door, hoping someone would hear. She was human now, so she couldn't just pop in any more, and she no longer had access to Angel Radio. Crap. This was going to take some getting used to. She pounded again, hurting her hand. Ow. Stupid steel door. In addition to the gag gifts she had already put in the closet for the Winchesters, she and Cas were going to have to get them a doorbell for Christmas. She wondered if you could get them custom-made. Which pop song would drive Dean the most crazy?

On the heels of that thought, Dean suddenly yanked the door open, holding a Demon knife in one hand and a vial of Holy water in the other.

Gail sighed. "Do what you have to do, Dean. I guess the consolation is, I can't get any wetter."

He splashed the Holy water on her, and she sputtered. "You can cut me with that blade if you have to," she told him, wiping the Holy water from her face with her hand, "but if you do, I hope there's an Angel here to heal it. Crowley turned me human, and all I can think of right now is peeing. I think I owe Bobby a big, fat apology."

Dean took her in his arms and held her. She clung to him for a moment, sniffling. Then she broke the embrace. "Let's get inside," she said to him. "I wasn't kidding about that pee. And then, we have some work to do before we can bring Cas back."

She rushed past him and down the stairs as Dean frowned. Aw, geez. Chuck had been right. He closed and locked the door behind them, pocketing the knife.

Gail hurried down the flight of stairs, past her astonished family and friends. Frank reached out his arms to her. "Hold that thought," she told her brother. "Gotta pee. Dean will explain."

She rushed down the hallway to the bathroom, relieved herself for what felt like about an hour, and then washed her hands, using the hand towel to dry her face and her hair. She looked down at her wet clothes, shivering with a chill. She loved the feeling of being cool, but this was ridiculous. But, wait a minute.

She went across the hall to her and Cas's old room. Had she left any clothes here? She couldn't remember. She opened the closet and was transfixed by the sight of Cas's shirts and pants hanging there. She'd forgotten that he had kept some clothes here, too. She ran her hand lightly over them, feeling that sharp pain again.

"How're you doing, kiddo?" Frank said from behind her, and she turned around to look at him. Tears were streaming down her face. Her brother came forward and hugged her to him. "I thought I'd lost you," he said softly. "Please don't ever do that to me again."

Gail pulled out of the embrace, looking at the water stains her wet clothes and tears had left on her brother's clothes. "Sorry about that," she said, sniffling the tears back. "Just let me get dried off, and I'll be right with you guys. We need to talk."

Frank leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "OK, Gail. OK. Whatever you say," he told her. Then he exited the room, closing the door behind him.

Gail turned back towards the closet, looking at Cas's clothes again. "Whatever I say?" she said to them, smiling a little. "Since when? Maybe I should go to Hell more often. It's not like he hasn't told me to go there before." She took a pair of her pants off the hanger, then reached for one of her tops. But then she hesitated. She looked back at Cas's clothes again. She took one of his shirts off its hanger and held it to her face, smelling it. "Paco Rabanne," she said softly into the shirt. "You wear it because that's what you wore on our first date. You wear it because you know I like it. Well, until you come back to me, that's what I'm going to wear, too. Hang on, sweetie. It won't be long."

Gail walked out to the library area wearing her own pants, and Cas's shirt. It was way too big on her, of course. She'd rolled up the sleeves, but she let the shirt hang down to her knees. Who cared?

Her friends and family all exchanged nervous glances, but no one said anything. Sam came forward now, taking her hand. "Dean told us you're human now," he said to her. He was working his jaw, willing himself not to break down. Sam was over the moon to have Gail back, but the sight of her in Cas's shirt was almost too much to bear. Sam cleared his throat. "Would you like something to eat?" he asked her.

Gail considered that, but then she shook her head. "Not right now, Sam," she told him. "But you know what I WOULD love? A nice, fresh cup of coffee."

"I'll make a pot," he offered, but she clung on to his hand. "No. I need you with me," she said.

"I'll do it," Rob said. He looked at Gail with a warm smile. "It's great to see you back."

"Thanks," she said to the youth. Gail looked around the table. Dean, Frank, Jody, Bobby, Chuck, and Paul. Bobby was bouncing baby Angela on his knee, stealing glances at Gail. "Just a minute," she said to Sam. "Stay right there."

Gail walked over to where Bobby was sitting and leaned down, putting her hands on his shoulders and giving him a soft kiss on the forehead. "It's OK, Bobby," she said. "It's not your fault. It was mine. I made a mistake." She was alarmed to see that he was on the verge of tears. Jody reached down and took the baby from Bobby, and he took Gail's hand. "I'm so sorry, dear," he said to her, his voice gruff with emotion. "How bad was it?"

She considered telling him for a moment, but what would be the point of that? It was over. So she shrugged. "Let's just say that Crowley's off the Christmas list this year." Then she raised her eyes to look at Paul. "Thanks for the great directions, by the way." He nodded his head in acknowledgement. "It's good to have you back, Boo," Paul said. "Everybody on the Board is anxious to see you. Liz, too. And Gabriel has been wandering the halls like some kinda ghost, or something. I think he was afraid to come here."

She smiled faintly. "That's OK; we'll sort all that out. I'm going to need him, eventually. But I'm human right now, so I'll have to depend on you guys for your help, until we get Cas back."

The nervous glances were exchanged again, and Gail picked up on it this time. "Ohhhh," she said, nodding slowly. "You guys think I'm crazy."

"No, not crazy," Chuck said uncomfortably. "You just want him back so badly that you're having trouble accepting the reality, that's all. We've been through this together before, remember? I can help you, Gail."

"He's not a 'him', he's Cas," she shot back angrily. "And this is totally different, Chuck. This time, I have a plan." She walked back around the table and grabbed Sam's hand, pulling him towards the bookshelves. "We'll get the book, and then we'll have one of the Angels pop us over to your buddy's store to get the ingredients," Gail said to him excitedly. "Then, when we've got everything else, I'll have Gabriel send me back, and I'll get the blood from Cain and Abel. Then - "

"Stop," Sam said firmly. "Just...stop."

She looked up at him. "What? Why?"

"You can't use the revival spell on Cas," Sam told her matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?" she said, making a face. "Of course I can! It worked on Dean!"

"Dean was a human," Sam pointed out.

"So what?" Gail retorted. "Rowena revived Crowley using that spell, and he's about as far from human as you can get. In more ways than one," she added dryly.

"Rowena had Fergus's bones, and we had Dean's body," Sam peristed. He hated like hell to do this, but they couldn't let her delude herself this way. To give her false hope would be even more cruel. "But that's not Cas's body out there," Sam said, gesturing to the bunker door. "It's Jimmy Novak's. We don't have Cas's bones, Gail."

She froze. Oh, God. Holy God. He was right. For a second, Gail was lost. Absolutely lost. If they didn't have Cas's bones, they were missing the main ingredient of the spell. And if they didn't have the most important ingredient of the spell...

Gail shook that off. No. Nope. There was no way she was going to finish that sentence, not even in her mind.

"We'll figure something out," she said stubbornly. "Let's get the book and study it. Come on." She took Sam's hand again and tugged him towards the place on the shelf where they had filed Rowena's spell book, and -

It wasn't there.

Gail looked up at Sam. "Where did you put it?"

"I didn't put it anywhere," Sam said. "It should be there." He looked where the book was supposed to be filed, and sure enough, there was a gap where the spell book was supposed to be. He reached into the gap. Maybe the book had just been pushed in a little. Nope.

Gail started pulling the surrounding books off the shelf, looking at them. "Did you guys do anything with it recently?" she asked him.

"No," Sam said, puzzled. He started pulling books out too, looking at them and then putting them aside. "Dean!" he called out. "Did you - ?"

"No," Dean said, poking his head around the corner of the bookshelves where the two of them were standing. They both looked up. "We can hear you, you know," Dean pointed out.

Gail started to panic. Bones or no bones, she needed that spell book. That was her plan: the revival spell. That was all she had left. She started pulling books off of the shelves and throwing them on the floor. "Dammit, Sam!" she exclaimed. "When I find that stupid thing, we're locking it up in the safe! It's way too valuable to be sitting out here, out in the open, where anybody can just - " She started to cry. "It's here somewhere. It's gotta be here." She swept all of the books from where she was standing off the shelves and onto the floor, and then she sank down among them, looking at them. But she could see that it wasn't there. She just didn't know what else to do at this point.

"We'll all help you look," Sam said gently. Dean looked at him angrily, but Sam gestured to his brother. Gail had just gotten back here from Hell, They both knew what that was like. It did things to you. He didn't have the heart to hammer at her about the futility of the spell any more. Once the book was found and she calmed down, they could have a good, long talk.

Everyone started checking the bookshelves, shelf by shelf, book by book. But they finally had to acknowledge that the spell book was gone.

Becky rushed home after the photo shoot, throwing her coat and keys on the vestibule. She loved her job, but she was eager to get home from it these days, because she had some studying to do.

She went to the kitchen and poured herself a diet soda, and then she took it to the living room and took the spell book out of the drawer of the desk in the corner. She sat down on the couch, opening the book on her lap.

Becky was sad that Cas and Gail were dead, of course. She had bawled her eyes out when Bobby had come here to tell her the bad news. Thank God Cas had brought her to Earth and turned her human before the tragedy had happened. Bobby had consoled Becky, telling her that they were going to have a double funeral and then a wake at the bunker, if she wanted to come. Of course she wanted to come, she'd told him. Cas and Gail had been her friends.

So she'd gone to the funeral, and it had been so sad. Everybody had cried buckets, even the men. And so did Becky, although a small but ever-growing part of her was secretly relieved that Gail would no longer be around to threaten Becky's plan to get Sam. She guessed that wasn't very nice, but she didn't tell anybody about that, of course.

Truthfully, though, Becky didn't actually have a plan. She'd had no idea how she was going to get together with Sam. She was human now, renting a house on the outskirts of town, doing a lot of modelling jobs and buying stuff for her house. But how could she arrange to see Sam? She didn't think she could just drive over there without an excuse.

Now she had her excuse, but as Becky walked around the library area at Cas and Gail's wake with a drink in her hand, the atmosphere just didn't seem right for Becky to approach Sam. He was inconsolable, pounding back drink after drink. As the rest of the people haltingly started to tell stories about the couple, Sam just sat there, staring off into space with hollow eyes. Becky realized that he was going to need some time. But, how was she going to - Wait a minute. Becky's eyes fell on the bookshelves, and her pulse quickened. She looked around quickly to make sure that no one was watching her, and then she ducked around to where she remembered having seen the spell book, way back when.

And it was still there, neatly filed, just where it should be. After a split second's deliberation, Becky took it, and hid it on her person. Then she had asked Riley to take her home. She was too overcome with grief to stay there a moment longer, she'd told him, and besides, she had a splitting headache. So he had winked her home.

Riley was one of the many who was just going through the motions right now. Cas had been his mentor, his big brother, his God, and his father, all rolled into one. Riley had no idea what to do with himself any more. He was questioning his entire belief system now. How had this been allowed to happen? How could it stand? He kept walking around Heaven asking everyone that question, but nobody had an answer for him. Guys like Bobby had sighed and said that they just had to go on with things, that Cas would want it that way. But nobody could tell Riley why.

Becky was leafing through Rowena's spell book now, taking sips of her soda. She was very careful not to spill any on the book, though. Wow. She hadn't looked at it in years, but Becky was still amazed at the stuff that was in here. Spells to curse people, help them, locate them, and eavesdrop on them. She flipped to the back, staring at the revival spell. Holy moly. This was the most complicated thing she had ever seen. It was amazing to think that Gail had brought Dean back from the dead using this spell. Too bad she couldn't bring herself and Cas back, Becky thought with grim humour.

Then she flipped to the love spells. There were a few of them, specified by categories. There was an infatuation spell, an eternal devotion spell, and a lust spell. Becky blushed. Boy, she wouldn't mind trying out that last one. But she'd better be sure. She looked at the eternal devotion spell. There were some weird ingredients here, some she had never heard of. But if she took her time and was very careful, she should be able to figure it out.

Becky went to the desk and opened her laptop, searching Google for occult shops.

They'd looked everywhere twice now, but Gail finally had to accept the reality that the spell book was gone.

She came walking out to the library table, trudging slowly, and flopped down in the nearest chair. It wasn't her usual seat, but who cared? There was no Cas to sit beside her, anyway.

Gail was exhausted, and completely discouraged. Rob put a cup of coffee in front of her, but she just sat there, looking at it. Tears were pooling in her eyes again, but she knuckled them away angrily. There was no time to be a crybaby right now. If she hadn't cried in Hell, she certainly wasn't going to cry over some stupid book. Think. Think. What should I do, Cas? If it wasn't pouring rain outside, she would probably go out and sit by his grave, and ask him. But it would be pretty muddy in the backyard right now.

She sat bolt upright. The back yard! Gail leaped from her chair and crossed the library room to the stairs. Frank grabbed her before she could start up them. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Let go of me," she insisted. "I need to go to the back yard."

"What for?" he asked her.

Gail could feel everyone's eyes on her. "I'm not crazy," she told them. "I'm not. I just need to..." She thought fast. "Visit Cas's grave."

Frank's grip on her loosened. OK. That was more like it. At least she'd given up on that stupid spell book, and she wasn't talking about Cas as if he was still alive.

"It's pouring outside, remember?" Dean pointed out.

"I don't care," Gail said stubbornly. "I have to go see him. I mean, I have to go see the grave."

"OK, OK. I'll go with you, then," Dean said. "Hold up a second." He headed quickly down the hall, then came back a moment later with a hoodie sweater, which he put on her shoulders. "At least put this on," he said softly. Dean gave Frank a look, and Gail's brother stepped back.

Gail shrugged on the sweater as she hurried up the stairs, Dean on her heels. She exited the door and made a beeline for the stone marker, ignoring the rain that was pouring down on her. She knelt down in the mud beside Cas's grave. Dean made an impatient noise and leaned down, flipping the hood to cover her head.

"I'm going to get you back, sweetie," she said, touching the headstone. "Don't worry, I'm not giving up. Father said so."

Aw, geez. Dean put his hands on her shoulders. "Come on, Gail. Cas wouldn't want you to catch a cold. Come on, let's go inside. We'll wait until the rain stops, and then you can come back out, OK? Let's get you a nice, hot cup of coffee, and we'll put about half a bottle of whiskey in it. Okay?"

"No," she said. "I have to find it. It should be right beside Cas, right here."

To Dean's horror, she started to dig in the mud with her bare hands, scooping up handfuls of mud and throwing them to the side. "What the hell are you doing?" Dean demanded, getting down on his knees next to her.

"I remembered, Dean," she said excitedly. "When I was hiding the spell book from Cas before I revived you, I photocopied the revival spell and buried a copy back here, in a coffee can!"

"It doesn't matter," Dean told her. "You heard Sam. It's not the same thing. Those aren't Cas's bones, sweetie."

Hearing Dean call her by the same nickname she called Cas made her start to cry, but she was also getting mad now. "Why does everybody keep saying that to me?" she wailed. "I don't care, Dean. I'll do it myself, if I have to. So either help me, or go back inside!" Now she was sobbing, flinging handfuls of mud around.

Dean sighed. "OK. Just a minute," he said. He went back to the overhang and grabbed the shovel that was leaning against the bunker wall. He brought it back to where she was kneeling. "Look out," he told her. He started to shovel the mud aside.

And then, incredibly, the coffee can was uncovered. But when Gail pulled it out of the muck, she screamed incoherently. Somehow, the lid had come off the container, and the pages were a soggy, pulpy mess. No! This couldn't be happening!

Dean threw the shovel down and grabbed Gail by the shoulders, pulling her to her feet. "You're coming inside with me, right now," he shouted, partly because the sound of the pouring rain was so loud, and partly because he had to get through to her somehow. "You think Cas wants you to get pneumonia? Think about how mad he'll be at me if I let you get sick!"

Gail dropped the coffee can. It was useless to her now. She let Dean take her inside.

"Jody, can you take her to the spare room and put her in some dry clothes?" Dean asked Frank's wife.

Jody handed Angela to Frank and came forward, taking Gail from Dean. Gail let Jody lead her to the bedroom. Jody sat her down on the bed, looking in the closet for a fresh outfit for Gail to wear.

"This really sucks," Jody said bluntly. "I remember when my husband and son died, I was in such deep denial about it for a while that I set places for them at the dinner table every night, when I came home from work. I used to roll over in bed at night, and expect to find my husband there." She took a pair of Gail's jeans and one of her tops off their hangers and brought them over to the bed. "Let's go," she said, gesturing. "I'm not undressing you like a child."

Gail just stared at her sister-in-law. "Cas isn't dead. I'm going to get him back. God said so."

"Yeah?" Jody said softly. "And just when did you talk to HIM?"

"In Hell," Gail replied. "He and Cas saved me from those Demons."

Jody sighed. She left the room and came back carrying a towel. Then she sat down on the bed next to Gail and handed it to her. "Do you realize how you sound right now?" Jody asked her sister-in-law, as gently as she could.

"OK, so, you guys can accept my being here fresh from Hell, but you can't accept the fact that I saw God there?" Gail said, wiping her muddy hands on the towel.

Jody paused. She had to admit that Gail had a point, there. "All right, Gail. OK," she said, taking the towel from Gail and dropping it on the floor. Gail started to change into her fresh set of clothes as Jody said, "You helped me so much when I was going through the worst of my cancer treatments. Now, I want to help you. What do you need, Gail?"

Her sister-in-law froze. She looked at the open closet, visualizing Cas standing there, getting dressed, as she was now. He always asked her that. And the answer was always the same: him.

"I need Cas back," she told Jody simply.

Jody frowned. "What if that's not possible?"

"Of course it's possible," Gail insisted. "God said it was."

The women walked back out to the library area. Frank gave Jody an inquiring look, but Jody shook her head. As Gail sat down again, trying to think of what to do next, Dean put a mug of hot coffee in front of her.

"Drink this," he ordered her. "It's laced, so be careful. You're human, now."

She took a sip, making a face that would have been comical under ordinary circumstances. "Too much?" Dean asked her, reaching for the cup.

"Nope. Just right," she told him, taking another sip.

While the women had been in the other room, Riley had popped down from Heaven. Bobby had sent word to the Angels that Gail was back, and Riley'd had to come and see her for himself. He came forward now, taking the seat next to her. In a sweet gesture, he reached out and took her hand.

"If there's anything - " Riley's voice broke, and he had to clear his throat and try again. "If there's anything, anything that I can do for you, please tell me what it is," he said to her. "Cas meant everything to me, so I can't even imagine what you must be going through."

"Thanks, Riley," she said softly. "But you can start by not talking about Cas in the past tense. If you really mean it about doing anything for me, then stick around, 'cause I'm going to need a chauffeur. I can't pop around places anymore." She was beginning to have an idea now, but she had to get away from all of these people, staring at her as if she was a lunatic. Cas was talking to her in her head now. She had allowed herself to get distracted in Hell, and again when she had been looking for the spell book. It wasn't his vessel she should be concerning herself with; it was his essence. Look at Gail herself as an example. Supposedly, she was buried in the back yard of the bunker, beside Cas. Yet here she was, drinking the world's strongest Irish coffee. Cas had tried to tell her before that they were much, much more than their vessels, and she was living proof of that, wasn't she? Within the space of a few weeks, she had been in Heaven, then in Hell, and now she was on Earth. If Cas wasn't in any of those places, there was only one other place he could logically be. All of this other stuff had just been a giant time-waster. She needed to go back to the original plan.

Gail looked at Frank. "I need to borrow your computer. Cas and I don't have one."

"You can borrow mine," Rob said quickly. "And I can help you look stuff up too, if you want. I know that older people aren't really that good with computers." He waited to see if she would take the bait, giving her a hopeful smile.

"Oh, har, har," Gail said to Frank's son. "Watch it. Just because I don't have my Angelic powers at the moment, doesn't mean I can't kick your ass." She looked at Dean. "Hey, that reminds me: Where's my blade?"

"They're in the weapons room," Dean replied somberly.

Gail nodded. She didn't question his use of the plural. He meant both hers and Cas's blades, of course. "OK, good," she said, taking another sip of coffee. "We'll keep them there for now." Then she stood from her chair, stretching. "Riley, can you take me to my house?" she asked the young Angel. "Then, if you wouldn't mind, can you bring Rob and his laptop over? We've got some research to do." Suddenly, her stomach rumbled, and she smiled. "And can you guys bring some food, when you come? You know that Cas and I won't have any in the house." She went over to Dean, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "Can I have Cas's cell phone, please? I'll call all of you guys when there's any news to report." He took it out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, communicating non-verbally. I have to do this, Dean, she said to him. I'm doing it. OK, Gail, he said. We'll be here, if you need us.

Then Gail reached out for Riley's hand, and then they were gone, leaving a stunned and silent group of loved ones behind.


	3. Never Tear Us Apart

Chapter 3 - Never Tear Us Apart

"What exactly are we looking for, Aunt Gail?" Rob was asking her now. He had his laptop on the dining room table, typing in his password.

Gail had a mouthful of food, and she put up her hand for a moment as she chewed and swallowed. Riley watched her, bemused. Except for a couple of very rare occasions, he hadn't seen Gail eat before. And even when he had, it had never been like this. She was spooning food off her plate like she couldn't get enough of it. Like her life depended on it. Which he supposed it more or less did, since she was a human now. How weird was that?

"Anything disaster-y," she said, taking a drink of water to wash down the food. Then she frowned. "I'm sorry. That sounded callous, didn't it? I just meant that I need to find something where a lot of people have died."

"So you're really gonna confront Death?" Riley asked her, with a mixture of respect and horror in his voice.

"Well, I don't know if 'confront' is necessarily the right word, but I'm going to find him so that I can talk to him, yeah," Gail replied. "I'm pretty sure he took Cas to the Netherworld."

"You're going to ask Death to bring him back?" Riley persisted.

Gail nodded. "Of course I am." Although just how she was going to accomplish that was beyond her at the moment. Gail still hadn't formulated a convincing argument in her own brain for that yet. She gave Riley a faint smile. Maybe if she convinced him, she would convince herself. "Death has done us a couple of favours before," she told the young Angel. "In fact, we had him over here for dinner recently, to ask him to bring Linda back. He sat where you're sitting, right now."

Riley looked startled. He glanced down at the chair he was sitting in, as if it were going to bite him, or something. Gail's smile widened. Riley had grown leaps and bounds maturity-wise since she had met him, but he still had that same naive quality that she found so endearing. She hoped he would never lose that. Even Cas still had his own streak of naivete, although it was sometimes hard to discern under the mantle of all the responsibility he bore now.

"Nothing like that right now, but I set up the news feed so it'll give us immediate notification of anything coming in," Rob announced. He looked at Gail's plate hopefully. "Are you gonna finish that, Aunt Gail?"

She sat back in her chair, rubbing her stomach. "No. Help yourself. Please, save me from myself. It's been so long since I've been that hungry."

Rob grabbed her half-eaten plate of food, grinning. "I'm always hungry," he said. "Mom says I have a hollow leg."

"I used to be the same way," Riley told him. "You'll probably grow out of it."

"Who wants to grow out of it?" Rob said, scraping the food off the plate into his mouth. "I love eating." He set the plate down on the table, empty. "Thanks, Aunt Gail."

"Just call me Gail," she said, her lips twitching. "I'm also your sister, remember? It's too confusing."

"How does that even work?" Riley said, puzzled.

Gail gave him a half-shrug. "Nobody knows," she quipped. "Everybody's related to everybody around here. Hey, how has everything been going in Heaven without us?"

"It's OK," Riley said glumly. "Ethan's in charge of the Academies, Henri and Linda are still co-chairing the main board, and Bobby's still in charge of the Suic-" He broke off, looking stricken.

"It's all right, Riley," she said, sighing. "That was stupid on my part. I was just trying to do anything I could to get Cas back." She nodded towards the computer. "That's why this is so important."

Rob looked closely at her face. "Can I hold your hand for a second, Gail?" he asked her suddenly.

Gail nodded, offering it to him without question. She thought he was looking for comfort, but a moment later, he said, "We're gonna get him back, Gail. But it's not going to be easy."

She laughed shortly. "When has it ever been?"

"We're gonna need him back, too, for when our Dad calls us all to that place he's setting up," Rob said, frowning.

Gail stared at him. Then she gently disengaged her hand from his, her heart racing. "Let's just focus on one crisis at a time, OK?" she said, a little irritably. Gail was growing tired of all these dire, cryptic warnings about Vincent. If he wanted to do something to them, why didn't he just DO it, already?

Rob actually understood. That one brief touch had told him a lot of things. Gail wouldn't be able to do anything, or talk about anything else, until they had Uncle Cas back. She was obsessed right now. But, now that Rob had held her hand, his faith had been restored. He'd seen Cas through her eyes, protecting her from all of those Demons who'd wanted to torture her in Hell. Cas was somewhere, and his essence was still strong. Rob could feel it. He was glad she wasn't giving up. But she'd better get Uncle Cas back quick. It wasn't gonna be too much longer until their dad sent out the call, and Rob knew that they would have no choice but to come.

There was a ringing sound coming from the computer, and Rob turned to it now. "There was a plane crash in Italy," he announced, scrolling down the screen. "Just over four hundred passengers. No survivors."

Gail felt sick, because her first impulse had been excitement. That was probably just the kind of thing she was looking for. But what kind of person did that make her, that she was happy about that kind of loss of life? She couldn't worry about that now, though. She knew her priority. Depending on what she would have to do for Death to make him grant her the favour, and Crowley's little parting gift on the back of her skull, Cas might have to put her on a big-time atonement program when he got back, though.

"Do you want me to take you over there?" Riley asked Gail. She considered for a moment. Would that be enough? It was hard to say. Death was the head honcho, for lack of a better term. He had a whole staff of Reapers to gather souls for him. Many times, Death didn't personally attend when people died. But every once in a while, he did, especially if there were large numbers. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. But if she went to a few of those places, Gail was hoping he would show. That was all she had right now. She had killed herself, yet he hadn't shown up. That fact had thrown Gail for a bit of a loop, and it had probably led to the skewed thinking that had made her force Bobby's hand, making him send her to Hell. All this time, they had been operating under the assumption that, if Cas went to the Netherworld, she would, too. But Death was the one who made those kinds of decisions, and he obviously felt otherwise. Gail wasn't quite sure how she felt about the apparent fact that she was so insignificant to Death that he hadn't even bothered to show up when she'd died. That would be another feeling to throw on the pile, for sorting later on.

Gail nodded to Riley. "We'd better go, just to be on the safe side." She looked at Rob. "Can you stay here and hold down the fort?" she asked him. "Maybe make note, if there are any other incidents. Put a bookmark on them, or whatever it is you guys do." Her lips twitched. "Oh, and there's more food in the kitchen. Help yourself."

Riley took Gail's hand and popped her out of the house. Rob looked at the empty plate on the table, shrugged, and then took it into the kitchen in search of more food.

Joseph stood in the middle of the field, looking around at the smoking debris. The plane had slammed right into a mountain. Didn't they have technology on those things that was supposed to prevent that sort of thing from happening?

Oh, well. That was those four-hundred-odd humans' bad luck. Right now, he had a job to do. But as he neared the impact site, Joseph saw that another being was beating him to it.

Ammit was standing with her arms spread wide, breathing in all the souls of the unfortunate people who had died in the plane crash. Men, women and children. The Sinners and the Righteous alike, and everyone in-between.

"Hey!" Joseph called out. "What do you think you're doing?"

Her eyes had been closed in ecstasy, but now, as she soaked up the last of the power, like sopping up gravy on a plate, her eyes snapped open. Joseph took a half a step back. She had glowing cat's eyes, and the arms that were outstretched were scaly, with sharp claws at the end. But then, as she swallowed her bizarre meal, her appearance settled into that of a buxom brunette woman.

Joseph's mouth was open. This was no Reaper. "What manner of creature are you?" he asked her insolently. "How dare you take our souls?"

"YOUR souls?" she said scornfully.

"Yes," he said insistently, walking closer to her. "I came here to do a job."

"Well, isn't that unfortunate," she said, shrugging. "I guess you'll have to go back and tell your employer that you're taking a sick day, then. And I would mind who you're calling a creature, if I were you. Once I take over from that pathetic old man, there'll be some staffing changes. I'll probably be laying off those who disrespect me." Ammit smiled slowly. "Or maybe I'll just eat you all, instead."

Joseph was stunned at her sheer audacity. "You think you're going to take over from Death?" he said in a hushed tone.

"Oh, I don't think so, I know so," she said, still smiling. "With each and every day, my power grows. A few more events like this, and I'll be ready to take him on, even without the Books. So you go back and tell your boss that the glass ceiling is about to shatter, and I'm going to use the biggest shard to cut his throat. OK, Joseph? I'll see you around."

Then she snapped her fingers, and was gone.

Riley and Gail missed Ammit by mere moments, but a stunned Joseph was still standing there when they arrived. Riley had popped them right into the crash zone. There were no officials right where they were at the moment, but Riley was aware that they had minutes, only.

"Death?" the young Angel said to Joseph, and the Reaper laughed mirthlessly. "No," he replied, looking at the two of them. "What's an Angel doing here with a human?"

"Riley?" Gail said to her companion. "Who are you talking to? What does he look like?"

He looked at her strangely, and then it dawned on him: only Angels and other otherworldly beings could see Reapers. But Gail was a human now. He described Joseph to her, but she shook her head. "He's not Death," she told Riley.

Joseph was thoroughly disconcerted now. "What do a lesser Angel and a human want with Death?" he asked them.

Riley was mad now, but not about the "lesser Angel" thing. He gestured to Gail. "Don't you know who this is?" he asked Joseph.

"No," the Reaper said, but he was uncertain now. He couldn't feel anything coming from her, but she seemed familiar to him, all the same.

"This is God's wife," Riley told him. "Gail."

"Castiel's wife is a very powerful Angel," Joseph scoffed. "This is a human woman."

"Please tell your employer that I need to meet with him," Gail said out loud. This was really weird. She couldn't actually see the Reaper, so she was basically talking to air. In a humorous moment, Riley put his hands on her shoulders and pivoted her so that she was speaking in the right direction. She would have to have a laugh with him about that later, once she got Cas back. "Tell him..." She thought for a moment. This Reaper, assuming he gave Death the message at all, was going to say that it came from a human. What could she say to convince Death that it was really her? "Tell him that if he wants some more drob de miel, I'd like to see if we can strike up an agreement. He'll know what that means."

Joseph looked at the pair. What a strange few minutes this had been. He had shown up for work as if it were an ordinary day, and been given two messages for his boss from two very different types of women. He shook his head vigorously. Maybe he SHOULD have taken a sick day. He disappeared, without another word.

Frank hung up the phone. "That was Rob," he announced to the group. "Gail's OK, but now she's got Riley popping her around the world, looking for Death. How weird is it that, in our family, that's a completely normal sentence?"

"So she's determined to carry on with this delusion?" Chuck said worriedly. "We've got to get her some help."

"What would you suggest?" Frank said, sighing. "When she gets like this, there's no talking to her. The harder we try, the more she's going to resist."

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," Sam mused. "Bobby, maybe you should bring Liz down to talk to her. They're best friends in Heaven, right? Plus, they were childhood friends. Maybe she'll listen to Liz."

"Good luck with that," Bobby said grumpily. "I already tried talking to Liz, and you know what she said? Once she and Gabriel gave me Holy hell for letting Gail go to...well, ya know...she said she's fully supportive of Gail, doing whatever it takes to get Cas back. Liz said she thinks their love is so strong that it wouldn't surprise her one bit to see them reunited. And that's a direct quote."

Chuck's lips twitched, despite himself. "Liz is the kind of person who thinks Bambi's mother is only sleeping, and that Darth Vader just needed more love."

Frank barked out a laugh. He rolled his eyes. "They really do be crazy," he remarked, looking at Paul for confirmation. Paul's eyes grew wide. No way was he going there. No way, no how. Liz was as sweet as a sack full of sugar, but she was also almost as scary as his little Boo.

"WHO really do be crazy?" Jody asked Frank sharply.

"Angels," Frank said quickly. "Angels be crazy."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," his wife said, as Dean swallowed hard to keep the beer from coming out his nose.

"Come on, Paul, let's go," Chuck said. "I know when I've been insulted." But he tipped Frank a wink, to let him know he was kidding.

"Thanks, you guys," Frank said sincerely. "Thanks a lot, Paul. I owe you one."

"Forget it," Paul said, extending his hand to Gail's brother for a shake. The two men shook. "I was glad to help," the Angel said. "When you talk to Gail next, please give her all of our love. And you know what, Frank? If anybody can get Cas back, my money's on her. Take care, brutha." Frank gave Paul a double-take, and Paul chuckled softly. Then he and Chuck were gone.

"You coming?" Jody said to Frank. She picked Angela up from Sam's arms. He'd been cuddling the baby, talking softly to the infant. Angela yawned, stretching her chubby little arms cutely. "See that?" Jody said. "Your daughter's tired, and so am I."

Frank glanced at Sam. "I'd like to stay here for a bit and talk to the guys, if that's OK. Do you mind?"

"Nope," Jody said. She came forward and gave her husband a hug with her free arm, and Frank kissed Angela gently on the forehead. "Bobby, Dean, help me get the baby stuff and bring it out to the car," Jody ordered the men.

"I can help - " Sam started to say in a mild tone, but Jody looked at him, and then she looked at Frank again. "No. You two, stay here," she said sternly.

The men all exchanged glances, but Bobby and Dean got up obediently and followed Jody down the corridor, picking up baby things on the way.

Frank cleared his throat. "That's Jody's way of saying that I'd better apologize to you, if I don't want to sleep on the couch tonight."

"You don't have to apologize to me, Frank," Sam said uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I do," Frank said, taking a seat at the table opposite his friend. "I just don't know how. I'm not very good at apologies, Sam."

"You were grieving your sister's death, or so we thought at the time," Sam said softly. "I know what that's like. Dean and I have been through it. There's no worse feeling in the world than losing a brother or sister, especially one you're really close to, like you guys are."

Frank took a hit of his beer. "Yeah, or losing someone you're in love with. Right, Sam?"

Sam avoided his gaze. "Come on, Frank. Let's not do this."

"Look, Sam, I'm not trying to be an asshole, here," Frank said quietly. "It's just that somebody needs to talk about the elephant."

"There's no elephant," Sam said, taking a drink of his own beer. "She's married to one of my best friends."

"Was," Frank corrected. "Listen, I hate to sound like the bad guy here, but I seem to be the only one around here not drinking the Kool-Aid. I loved Cas too, man, but he's dead. Once my sister accepts that, she'll be much better off. Which means that she'll be a widow, and she's also human now, too. Doesn't that kind of put you guys back to Square One?"

Sam wanted to be outraged. He wanted to look at Frank and tell him off. Say that that was ridiculous, it was insulting, and it was just plain wrong. But instead, he just took another drink.

Gail and Riley were back at the house now, telling a wide-eyed Rob about their encounter with Joseph.

"So you can only see these Reapers if you're an Angel?" Rob said, fascinated. "Sounds kind of like those creatures in our boy wizard books, right, Aunt...I mean, Gail?"

She laughed humourlessly. "Yeah, I guess so. Which begs the question: I wonder if I'll even be able to see the Big Guy, when the time comes? IF the time comes." She sighed. "Anything else on the computer?"

"Not yet," Rob replied. "Don't worry; I'm keeping an eye out." He looked from her to the computer screen and then back at her again. "I'm glad you're back, Gail," the young man told her. "Everybody was so miserable when you were gone. Dad was a mess."

Gail's heart hurt. "I can just imagine," she said in a subdued tone. "Let me guess: he was angry all the time, and he drank too much."

Rob was astonished. "How did you know that?"

Gail gave him a look. "Please," she said. Then her expression grew serious. "Are he and your mom OK, do you think?"

The young man shrugged. "Yeah, I think so. They fought a bit, but whenever Mom would start to get really mad, she would pick up and go to one of her cancer meetings. I showed her how to set up a Facebook page, and now she runs a support group for cancer patients. Sometimes she would take Angela with her to the meetings, and sometimes I babysat, if Dad was too - well, you know." But then, Rob's face brightened. "That kid's gonna be one smart cookie. Did I tell you? Her first word was 'Rob'. I've been trying to get her to say other names, too. Have you ever stopped to think about how many one-syllable names we have? Sam, Dean, Chuck, Cas..." Rob put a hand over his mouth. "Oh, man, I'm sorry, Aunt Gail."

"It's OK, Rob. I thought of it too, of course," Gail told him. Then she sighed again. "They all think I'm nuts, don't they?"

But as Rob tried to think of an answer to that question that wouldn't sound completely mean, Riley piped up, "I don't."

Gail looked at him. "You don't?" she asked, with a tone of surprise.

"No, I don't," the young Angel said, sounding nearly as surprised as she did. "I kind of did, at first. But now I don't, any more. I'll stay with you for as long as you need me to, Gail. If anybody can get him back, you can. And if I can help you do that, in any way, I'll be glad to."

Gail smiled warmly at both young men. Her soldiers. "I appreciate the support, you guys," she told them sincerely.

Rob looked at her hopefully. "Is there any more food?"

Joseph had passed along the messages, and Death had been angered by what his Reaper was telling him. Both women would have to be dealt with, but of more immediate concern to Death was the mystery being, who was taking souls that she was not entitled to.

Death knew who that was, of course, even though his Reaper would not. She was hardly the first individual who'd sought to usurp his position throughout the millennia. No one had ever posed much of a threat to him, though, not really. But Death was disturbed to hear that Ammit had apparently opted to throw the usual code of conduct out of the window. She had done pretty well for herself, having finagled her way into a position of responsibility as the Keeper of the Lake of Fire. That had been a first, for a female entity. But Ammit had obviously set her sights on a much higher position. Everyone needed to have goals, but she was going about things entirely the wrong way. Stealing souls like that was extremely dishonourable. She was supposed to remain by the Lake to receive the few wretched souls that trickled down to her. It was time that Ammit received a refresher course regarding her place in the scheme of things.

He could sense her as soon as he went to Earth to attend at the site of a minor earthquake in Yugoslavia. Less than a dozen people had died in a small village. Definitely not worth his time. But he'd just wanted to see.

And sure enough, there she was, inhaling the essences of the people who had died there, as if it was her right to do so.

"I see you got my message," Ammit said to Death, without a trace of fear.

"Indeed I did," he replied calmly. "Now I am here to deliver one of my own. You will cease what you are doing, immediately."

"You know what? I don't think so," Ammit said, walking through the rubble toward him. "You men have had things your way for centuries now."

"This has nothing to do with being male or female. You know those kinds of things are fluid when it comes to beings such as ourselves," Death pointed out. "It's all about fairness, and the natural order. Everyone has their place in the scheme of things."

"Oh, and I suppose my 'place' is where you say it should be?" she said sarcastically.

Death was unruffled. "That is correct. I am the ultimate arbiter, yes."

"Well, I think it's time for a change," Ammit said insolently.

"There will be no change. You will do as you're told, or suffer the consequences." Death raised his walking stick, and Ammit fell to her knees. She glared up at him. "Do you think you can keep me subjugated like this forever?" Ammit fumed. But Death made no answer to that. Yes, he could. Of course he could.

But then, an amazing and worrisome thing happened. Ammit struggled to her feet, and then stood in front of him defiantly. How had she done that? She should not have been able to do that.

"I will have your position," Ammit told Death, smiling sourly. "Once all of the new souls I have gathered at the Lake have gone into the fire, and I acquire just a few more, I will be back for you, Old Man."

Then she disappeared.

Gail had asked Riley to go out and get some Chinese food, and she and Rob had grazed their way through most of it. They were still waiting by the computer, but so far, only minor events had occurred, such as car accidents and the like, and one very small earthquake in Yugoslavia that had claimed less than a dozen people.

"Here," Gail said, tossing Riley a fortune cookie. He looked at her questioningly. "I know you're not going to eat it," she said to the young Angel. "I'm not going to eat mine, either. I never did like them much." She took one for herself, looking at Rob. "It's tradition. Your Dad and I used to do this all the time whenever we got Chinese food on the road. Too bad we never got one that said 'You'll be kidnapped by Demons tonight'. That one would have saved us a lot of trouble," she quipped.

Gail was kidding, of course. That kidnapping had actually been the best thing that had ever happened to her. It had led her to Cas. Where was he right now? What was he doing? Was he in the Netherworld, patiently waiting for her to get there? Did he even know that she had died, too? Was he going as crazy as she was, right now? Oh, great. Now she was depressed as hell.

"Mine says 'Books can provide great knowledge'," Riley said, dropping his cookie on the table. "Whatever that means."

"'It takes a lot of Good to overcome a little Bad'," Rob read aloud. He put his fortune down on the table and stuck a piece of cookie in his mouth, crunching it with his teeth. "Huh. Interesting. What's yours say, Gail?"

She looked down at the angled cookie in her hands, suddenly afraid to open it. What if it said something about losing a loved one? Then she decided she was being stupid. The "fortunes" in those things were nothing but platitudes. Generalities. Just like horoscopes. The things they said were so generic that they could apply to anyone, really. She broke it open and looked at the piece of paper. "'Live every day as if it were your last'," she read aloud, and the three of them looked at each other.

And that was when there was a knock at the front door.

"I thought I would save us both some time," Death said dryly.

Gail gaped at him, temporarily rendered speechless. She had not seen this coming. Then she shook it off, and opened the door wider. "Come in, please," she said to him.

As he moved past her down the hall towards the dining room, Gail cursed herself. Rob was here. Frank was going to kill her. Not that Death posed any danger to her nephew, of course. It wasn't as if he just ran around killing people, or anything. Still, she didn't think Frank was really going to care about that.

Rob and Riley stared up at Death, open-mouthed. He nearly smiled. He always got this reaction from the young ones. Death turned to Gail. "I know who they are, of course, but it is customary to provide introductions in these types of situations. However, since you are in mourning and they are very young, I will overlook it. Oh, and before you ask, I have made myself visible to all of you for ease of conversation."

"Would you like some Chinese food?" Gail blurted out.

Death gave her a curt shake of his head. "I am not particularly hungry at the moment. I am merely here to tell you that I am aware of what you are doing, and you are wasting my time."

"Then I'll get right to the point," she said quickly. "You sat right there at our dinner table and told us that you believe in what's fair. That you reward sacrifice, if that sacrifice was warranted."

"All right, fine. Then I will get to the point, too," Death replied, tight-lipped. "Castiel's sacrifice was NOT warranted. He was supposed to have killed you. You were the one who was supposed to die that day, not he. God is much more important than any one Angel. Now Heaven is without a leader, again."

Gail let out a frustrated breath. "All right. Then what about fairness? Was it fair for Raguel to have used that ring against Cas like that? What was even the point of that? Because he wanted the Holy War? What would THAT have done to your natural order? I'm sure it would have thrown everything out of whack. Why aren't you out there punishing Raguel, then?"

The young men gasped out loud as Death pointed his walking stick at Gail. "Do not speak to me with such disrespect," he said in a clipped tone. "You think you are very clever, don't you? That all you have to do is look at me, and I will capitulate. The very notion of you trying to 'logic' me is absurd. You are a spoilt child, who is dealing in matters better left alone."

"Well then, you know what you have to do, don't you?" Gail said coolly. "If it was supposed to have been me, then, let it be me. I don't want to live without him, anyway."

"No, Aunt Gail!" Rob exclaimed, but Gail looked at Riley instead. "Take him to the bunker, Riley. Please."

"Gail..." he started to say, but she shook her head. "No. Do it, please. For me. For Cas." Then she looked at Rob. "Tell everybody I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. I've tried, and I just can't. I see him everywhere I go. I hear his voice in my head." She was crying now. "My head hurts, my stomach hurts, and my heart hurts. This is beyond grief. It's unbearable. Cas and I are the same person. I don't exist without him. I don't WANT to exist without him. Tell everyone I love them. Now, go. Please."

"We love you too, Gail," Riley said. Then he took Rob's hand, and winked him out of the house.

Gail stood facing Death as stoically as she could, silent tears streaming down her face.

"All right, I'll take you to him, then," Death said to her, frowning. "But not because of anything that you have said or done here today. Merely because I can see that you will not stop, and I do not wish to be saddled with you at every turn. But, know this: you cannot keep on doing what you are doing. I thought the lesson would have been obvious. When you committed suicide and I did not come for you, I thought that you would have taken the hint. I suppose it was my own fault, in a way. I should never have granted you and Castiel a favour to begin with. Now, you look at me and you think that I am an easy mark. An old fool."

Gail's forehead wrinkled. What? Where had THAT come from? But she remained silent for the moment, afraid that one wrong word from her might make him change his mind.

Death sighed. Then he reached out and touched her forehead with one finger and she fell to the floor, dead.

They were walking down a quiet, suburban-looking neighbourhood now, just Gail and Death, side by side. She was overjoyed. Death was taking her to Cas! She looked all around. So, this was the Netherworld. It didn't seem so bad, really. A little devoid of character, maybe, but it was quiet, and the streets were clean. They had passed many different types of locales in the blink of an eye: rural, urban, mansions, apartment buildings, and everything in-between. She supposed it was like Heaven, in that respect. Everyone lived in the type of domain in which they were the most comfortable.

They came upon a simple house in the middle of nowhere, with a small front yard. There were flowerbeds next to the porch steps, and as Gail followed Death around the side of the house, she saw with delight that there was a large vegetable garden in the back yard. Then she looked in the meadow behind the gardens and burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. There was a small flock of sheep, quietly grazing there. Cas had finally gotten his sheep.

"Can I help you?" he asked from behind them.

Gail wheeled around. Cas was standing on the steps of the back porch, frowning at them. She started to run to him, but there was something about his expression that made her stop.

"We just wanted to have a look at your vegetable garden," Death said calmly. "We did not mean to disturb you."

"Oh," Cas said. He looked expressionlessly at Gail. "My apologies, Miss. I did not intend to be rude. But, I do not receive visitors."

"Then we'll be leaving," Death said. He touched Gail's arm, and suddenly, they were standing in a forest clearing. She looked around wildly. What the hell?

"Why?" she asked Death, anguished.

"Because," he said coldly. "Because you cheated the game. Because you tried to make me do what you wanted me to do, simply because you wanted it. You committed suicide when it was not appropriate to do so, and then, you conspired to manipulate me. Well, you have gambled, and ultimately, you have lost. You do not dictate the terms for the Afterlife; I do. There is a natural order, which must be respected. You think you are above the rules, don't you? But, you are not. So now, you will live here for all of eternity, without your husband."

She stood there in utter shock. He couldn't be serious. He just couldn't be.

"Hasn't a part of you known all along that this was the way that things were going to go?" Death asked her softly. "You prepared yourself for a solitary existence, even as a child. You will have your books, and Castiel will have his sheep. And now you see why I do not believe in love, or sentiment. Those types of feelings only serve to weaken you."

"But - " she tried to say, and Death held up his hand. "You overstepped your bounds, and now, you have to pay the price. There is always a price to pay for trying to cheat Death, Gail. Always."

Then, incredibly, he turned his back on her and began to walk away. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "Wait! Please! Can't we strike up some sort of deal? Can't we even negotiate? Please," she begged him. She was wailing now. "Please! I'll do anything you want. Anything."

Death stopped, turning around slowly to face her. "All right, then," he said calmly, moving back in her direction. "How about if I were to ask you to kill Frank, or Sam and Dean? How about little Angela?"

Gail stared at him, frozen in shock. Then Death shook his head, frowning at her. "You disappoint me," he said dryly. "This is not a cheap, dime-store horror novel, and I am not a cheap, dime-store villain. When will people ever understand that? I do not care who lives, or who dies. I truly do not. My only concern is the souls. It has always been about the souls. It will always be about the souls." But now, something occurred to Death. Perhaps there WAS something that she could help him with.

"Do you know of the Demon Goddess, Ammit?" Death asked Gail suddenly.

"Yes, of course," Gail said quickly.

Death thought for a moment. He would never admit it, of course, but his experience with Ammit had unnerved him a little. He was unused to such impertinence, especially since she had seemed to have enough power to give him a real challenge. And she had said that she was going to acquire even more power from the souls that she had stolen and taken to the Lake of Fire. The Lake was one of the very few places that Death was unable to access. He simply could not go there.

But God could.

After some discussion, and some strategic silences on her part, Gail was able to discern that Ammit was making trouble for Death. And that, he was trying very hard not to admit it, but the Demon Goddess concerned him. So much so that it seemed as if Death might be willing to negotiate with Gail, if he was under the impression that she could help him with Ammit.

So, Gail did the only thing she could do: she lied.

"Cas and I can kill her for you," Gail offered. "The markings on our blades state that two Original Angels can combine to use their blades to strike her down."

Death was looking at her, scrutinizing her face closely. Gail kept herself calm, and her face without expression. Back when Cas had been playing poker, he was an expert at not giving anything away. He could have a Royal Flush all the way down to a nothing hand, yet his expression always remained exactly the same. He had tried to teach her how to do that, but Gail had been unable to master the skill. She was always an open book, no matter how hard she tried to hide what she was really feeling. There was a reason she had only played high-stakes poker a couple of times, Gail had told her husband, smiling. It was because she sucked at it.

But now, she was running the biggest bluff of her life. This was the riskiest thing she had ever pulled, in a way. But in another way, she had nothing more to lose. If Death walked away from her now, she was screwed, for all eternity. She was desperate.

After an unbearable pause, he finally said, "All right, Gail. You have a deal. But if I find out that you are misleading me, or should you and Castiel fail, I will send my Reapers after each of your loved ones, one by one. Are we understood?"

"Yes, of course," Gail said, keeping her expression and her tone steady. "We are completely understood."

Death continued to gaze at her for another nerve-wracking moment. Then he touched her forehead with his walking stick, and then everything went black.

Gail came to slowly, as if rising to the surface from the deep end of a swimming pool. She opened her eyes, but her vision was blurry. Where was she now? And why was the ground underneath her so bumpy? She felt dizzy; disoriented. She put her hand down to steady herself, and the ground moved underneath her.

"Oof," Cas said softly.

Her eyes snapped wide open. THAT was why the ground had been moving! It wasn't the ground! It was Cas!

"Sweetie!" she exclaimed. She rolled over onto her stomach, moving up his body until she was looking down at his face. "Cas!" She clung to him, peppering him with kisses.

Cas smiled slowly. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Somehow, it did not surprise him one bit that he should be waking up with her here, on the same Egyptian field where he had killed himself an indeterminate period of time ago. "My love," he murmured. "My darling. What sort of miracle have you performed?" Then he began to kiss her, too, and then she started to cry.

"I'm sorry, Cas," she said, sniffling. "I'm leaking all over you."

"I have never been happier to be leaked on in my entire existence," he told her, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, and her lips.

"I'm never letting go of you," she said, still clinging to him. "Never. People are going to think we're conjoined twins. I was so scared, Cas. I didn't want to live, sweetie. You have no idea - " Her throat closed up, and she whimpered.

"Shhhh," he soothed her. "Shhh. Please don't cry." But he was crying now, too. He saw her blade lying on the ground, stained with blood. When they had come to, she had been lying on top of him. Cas could do the math. When he had killed himself rather than be forced to harm her, she had committed suicide, too.

Raguel! Cas sat up quickly, still holding Gail close to him, afraid to let her go. But the Archangel was nowhere to be seen. Cas raised his free hand, but Michael's ring was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Cas looked at Gail lovingly. He should be lecturing her, telling her she should not have committed suicide just because he had. But he didn't have the heart; at least, not right now. She was still weeping, and Cas was pretty certain that he was, too.

"Let's go home, my darling," Cas said softly. He picked their blades up from the ground, pulled her closer to him, and winked them away.


	4. Fire Lake

Chapter 4 - Fire Lake

Gabriel was pacing the floor in their suite in Heaven, in a highly agitated state. He'd been hyperactive ever since the couple had appeared to him and Liz in Heaven, hand in hand. Gail had cleaned the blood off their clothing and Cas had conjured up some tissues for them both, but they were well aware of how startling their sudden appearance would be for everyone.

As it was, Cas had been beyond upset when Gail had told him her story. It was like an emotional roller coaster. He had been both angry at and proud of his wife, and Gabriel, for standing up to Raguel the way they had done. But then, Gail had killed herself in her risky bid to be reunited with Cas in the Netherworld. But Death never came, she'd told him, so she had ended up in front of her own Suicide Board here in Heaven.

Gail tried to minimize some of her more harrowing experiences, so as not to enrage him, or traumatize him further. She emphasized that it had been entirely her idea to get sent to Hell, to try to persuade Crowley to revive Cas. When the King refused, she told Cas, she had persuaded him to send her back to the bunker. She wasn't lying to Cas, she rationalized, just omitting a rather large group of facts. If there was one thing they didn't need right now, it was Cas raining down Holy fire on Crowley. She still had no idea what the little gift underneath her hair was capable of doing to her, and they had more immediate problems.

Cas was looking at her evenly. If Gail thought he was buying her claim that Crowley had merely returned her to Earth safe and sound out of the goodness of his heart, then she was dreaming. But he had vowed not to be stern with her so soon after their frightening experience.

Then she had told him about her emotional return to the bunker, and her attempts to find the spell book. Sam had been quite right, of course. Even if the book had been there, the spell would never have been able to have been cast. Unlike Crowley, Castiel had no bones, in any location. He had been an Angel for so long that there were no vestiges of his human existence left.

Still, Gail had not given up in her attempts to be reunited with her husband. Cas was now holding both of her hands in his, staring into her eyes as she continued her tale. He knew that she was soft-pedalling quite a few things along the way. Even if he didn't use his Godly power, which he was trying very hard not to do, Cas knew his wife very well. She was shaking like a leaf, looking at him with wide eyes. She was terrified.

As she neared the end of the recounting of her ordeal, Gail started to cry again. "Death took me to you, but you didn't even know me, Cas! You had no idea who I was! Then he took me away, and he said that we were going to be apart for eternity, and that was my punishment. So then, I lied to him."

"You WHAT?!" Cas exclaimed, alarmed.

Gail explained about Ammit, and what she had told Death. "I lied my face off," she told her husband. "I had no choice! He was going to leave me there, Cas. I was going to be there all alone, and you and I were never going to see each other again! I did what I had to do."

Now, Cas was the one who was scared. She had lied to Death. She had lied, to Death. What were the consequences of THAT going to be? He had no idea how to kill Ammit. He didn't even know where the Lake of Fire was. But why had he not known Gail, when Death had brought her to their house in the Netherworld? When Cas had first arrived there after his death, he had been blissfully unaware of his wife's many ordeals. He had been crushed to be without her, but he had known he'd done the right thing, nevertheless. He could never have harmed her. Never. But when Cas had seen the little house that looked so much like their house on Earth, his spirits had soared. Surely the Father would not have given Cas a house like that if He did not intend for the two of them to be together. Cas had waited for Gail for thousands of years before now. If he knew that she was coming, he could wait some more. So he had begun to plant the flowers and the vegetables, to make the place attractive for her once she got there. Then the sheep had wandered into the back acreage, and Cas had started tending to them, as well. He had taken to the quiet and serene life, but it was hollow and lonely without her. Still, Cas had faith. He would wait outside every day, looking for her. Then, when she did not come, he would do his chores, and then, he would wait some more.

"But I have no recollection of Death bringing you there," Cas told her now. "One moment, I was there, and the next, I was waking up with you, back in Egypt." The enormity of what they had just escaped was starting to sink in now, and Cas began to tremble, too. He took Gail in his arms again, holding her close to him until their shaking subsided. "Oh, my darling," he said into her hair. "I'm so sorry that you went through all of that." He pulled out of the embrace. "But, I would do it again. And again, and again, to spare your life. But you must promise me that you will never, ever, do that again."

Gail smiled sadly. "You know I can't do that, Cas. Just like you would do what you did again and again, I would do whatever I had to do to get you back. Again and again and again." She touched his face. "I love you, sweetie."

"Without you, there is no me," Cas replied, taking her hands and kissing them softly. "I have always loved you, and I always will." He smiled through the tears that were pooling in his eyes again. When they remarried, those were going to be their vows. He told her this now.

Gail nodded. She liked that idea. But right now, they had much more pressing issues. "We need help figuring out how we can get to Ammit," she said, "and I guess we'd better announce to everyone in Heaven that you're back. Maybe we'll get Bobby to go down to the bunker and let everyone there know, too. Prepare them for your return. Remember how Bobby ended up here again, after he got the shock of Dean coming back from the dead?"

Now it was Cas's turn to nod. She was right. He certainly didn't want any of their human friends or family dying of a heart attack as soon as he popped into the bunker. Cas smiled again, thinking how good it was going to feel to see everyone again. He had been so lonely in the Netherworld. Once again, he wondered why Death would not have brought Gail to him, to live with him in their little house there. He had definitely thought of it as "their" house. It had had the best qualities of all of the abodes he'd lived in with her in every era, combined. Although he had missed the rest of their extended family very much, he had been resigned to the reality that he and Gail might have to be separated from them in the Afterlife. He and his wife were part of Heaven's Exalted, an elite group that was ranked high, above all others. Dean or Frank might call that snobbery, but that was simply the way it was. The Father had always employed a system of hierarchy. From Himself all the way down to the lowliest of Junior Angels, God had always rewarded those most loyal to Him with titles, and higher regard. Now, Cas was the serving God. It didn't get much higher than that. And even were he not God, Castiel outranked pretty much everyone now, except for Gabriel and Raguel. But somehow, his wife had not made the cut, as the expression went. This made no sense to Cas. None whatsoever. Gail had told him that Death said that was her punishment. But what about if their being separated for all of eternity was not her punishment, but Castiel's?

She had broken into his reverie then, squeezing his hand gently and telling him that they had better act as soon as possible. And that was when they had gone to announce to glorious news to their fellow Angels.

Gabriel was making Gail dizzy now, pacing back and forth, back and forth. Gail looked at Liz, who gave her friend a small shrug.

Gabe had been stunned when the two of them had come waltzing into Liz's office, hand in hand. He had been hiding out here ever since Cas and Gail had died, afraid to face anyone. Liz had taken him in, because that was the sort of person that Liz was. Gabriel had felt so low at that point that he had contemplated committing suicide himself. He had completely and utterly let his Brother down. Because Gabe had been afraid to fight Raguel in the first place, the Archangel had been free to use Michael's ring against Castiel in the horrible way that he had. There was no need for Raguel to have done that. None at all. If he'd wanted the Holy War so bad, he could have just compelled Castiel to declare it, and left Gail out of the equasion altogether. But Raguel had commanded Castiel to kill his own wife, the one person Cas loved beyond anyone else, just for spite. Just because he could. But although Castiel had marshalled all of his strength and refused, he'd known that he could only resist the power of the ring for so long. So he had made the ultimate sacrifice, and then, so had Gail.

And both of their deaths had been Gabriel's responsibility. He had failed Castiel by not having been man enough to take Raguel on before any of that mess had been allowed to take place. And then, Gabriel had failed his Brother again, when he had done nothing to prevent Gail from killing herself. The fact that he hadn't seen that coming was no excuse. He should have done...something. Taken her blade away from her, at the very least.

Gabriel had confessed all of this and more to Liz when he had gone to her in Heaven, seeking comfort. She had listened without judging, and after he was done with his confession, Liz had laid his head down on her bosom, and he had cried like a baby.

Then the process of building him back up had begun, and although it was still a work in progress, Liz's patience and understanding had helped Gabriel immensely. He sat in her office during the day, sometimes reading quietly and sometimes nattering away, but if he was bothering her, she would never let on. Some nights, he would disappear, but she would never ask him where he went. If he felt it was her business, he would tell her, Liz reasoned. Some nights, he would ask to come over to her apartment, and they would talk through the night, about a variety of different subjects. And eventually, when his puppydog face had sufficiently worn her down, Liz had let him into her bed, as well.

Liz had needed a little comforting of her own. Her heart had broken when she'd received the news. She and Gail were best friends in Heaven, partners in crime who shared giggly conversations and confidences. Liz had persuaded Gail to add a little altruism to her already busy schedule, and the two of them had worked side by side at the school and the seniors' centre. But that didn't mean they couldn't have some laughs along the way. The two of them had laughed so much. Who was Liz going to laugh with now? Who was she going to tell her secrets to? A short while back, before she'd gone to Egypt, Gail had encouraged Liz to give Gabriel a chance. And now, in a strange way, Gail had brought Liz and Gabriel together, because they had bonded over their grief for their fallen Brother and Sister.

Then had come the blessed day when they'd heard that Gail had come back. That news had brought pure joy, but it had only lasted a millisecond. Then had come the depths of despair, when the two of them found out that she had been cast into Hell. Gabriel had grabbed Liz's hand and stormed over to Bobby's office, demanding to know why. Liz had had to stand between the men to prevent a potential fistfight. Gabriel was still a pacifist at heart, but his angry confrontation with Raguel had served to give Gabe the wake-up call he'd needed. Some things were worth fighting for. So he had yelled at Bobby for sending Gail to Hell, even if that was what she had asked for. But then, Bobby had done some metaphorical counter-punching of his own, telling Gabriel he needed to shut his mouth, because it was his fault that Cas and Gail were dead in the first place. And that had been it. TKO. Gabriel had slunk out of there with his tail between his legs, because ultimately, Bobby was right.

But then, when they had heard that Gail was back from Hell and planning on getting Cas back, Liz had rejoiced. That was the friend she knew and loved. Liz had been filled with hope then, because like Gail, Liz believed that love trumped everything. If there was a way, her friend would find it. Gabriel had been less convinced, but for a change, he had held his tongue.

"Would you sit down, please?" Gail appealed to Gabriel now. "You're freaking me out."

"You. Lied. To. Death," Gabriel said, making each word its own sentence for emphasis. "Do you know what kind of shitstorm - sorry, Ladies - crapstorm you've unleashed, Gail?"

Gail took a moment to think about that. She made a face. "I couldn't help it! I didn't know what else to do!" she exclaimed. "That's why we have to figure out where the Lake of Fire is and kill Ammit, as soon as possible!"

"Oh, sure," Gabriel said sarcastically. "We're just gonna march in there and kill a Demon Goddess who's existed for centuries, on her own turf, using - what was that? Oh, yeah. You don't know. Well, there's a spectacular plan."

"How does somebody become a Demon Goddess, anyway?" Liz asked them, curious.

"She had to have moved up the ranks from the status of an ordinary Demon, distinguishing herself along the way," Cas said thoughtfully. Now that they had a problem to solve, he had compartmentalized his emotions for the moment.

"Distinguishing herself how?" Gail asked warily.

"Oh, the usual," Gabriel said dryly. "Outstanding Achievement in Torture, and General Rotten-ness. Killing and maiming for the King. She must be very good at that kind of stuff. Which is why it's not gonna be easy to kill her."

"You mentioned the King," Liz remarked. "Couldn't Crowley help - "

"No," Gail interrupted quickly. "No. We're not calling him."

Cas was looking at her curiously. Oh yes, there was more going on here than she was telling him, that was for sure. But right now, they had to stay focused on the problem at hand.

"What about Sam?" Liz suggested. "Maybe the lore's got something on the subject."

Gail frowned. "I'd like to avoid talking about this with them, if we can help it. I don't want this getting out. So please, please don't tell anybody. All we would need would be for Death to find out I lied to him. He meant what he said about those Reapers. Now, come on. We should be able to figure this out for ourselves."

"The way I see it, our first priority is to find the Lake of Fire," Cas mused. "Do you know where it is, Gabriel?"

The Archangel's forehead wrinkled. "Nope. No clue." Then his expression brightened. "You know who might know, though?" He nudged Liz gently. "One of your old geezers - I mean, senior citizens." He smirked. "That's some ancient knowledge, right there. I betcha some of them even fought the Demon Gods, back in the day."

"Leah told me her husband fought a Demon God, once," Liz said excitedly. "I didn't think about that until you mentioned it." She took Gabriel's hand, and Gail's lips twitched. Once this latest crisis was over, she planned on teasing her friend, big time.

"Leah? You mean Betsy Ross?" Gabe quipped.

"Who?" Cas said, puzzled.

"He calls her Betsy Ross, because she's been making this epic quilt for ages now," Liz remarked.

"Wait a minute," Cas said, thinking back. "Was that the lady who wanted the heat adjusted in her room? She said something to me about a quilt, when we were there for my visit with Noah. She said I was on it."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Liz said, smiling. "It's quite the piece of art. She told me every square represents a significant historical event."

Gail's lips twitched again. She put her hand lightly on Cas's thigh. "Did you ever strap on that toolbelt and fix the heat in her room?" she teased her husband.

He smiled thinly. "No, I never did. Truthfully, I forgot all about it. I suppose I'll be in trouble, now."

"Just make sure she doesn't poke you with that bony finger of hers," Gabriel cautioned Cas, gesturing to a spot on his arm. "I've had this bruise here for weeks."

"YOU have?" Gail said, surprised.

Gabe looked at her. "That's right, Kitten," he said casually. "With you gone, Liz roped me into helping out."

Now it was Cas's turn to fight from breaking into a grin. Gabriel, helping out at the Seniors' Centre. Liz wasn't just an Angel, she was a miracle worker. "Let's go see her, then," he said, taking Gail's hand.

"Aren't you going to go down and see Frank, and everybody?" Liz asked the couple.

Gail frowned. "We will, but I think we'd better take care of this, first," she said. "I don't think Death was making an idle threat."

"We asked Bobby to go down and tell everyone that we're fine," Cas added. "That will have to do until we can fulfill our end of the bargain."

"But remember, nobody is supposed to know about this," Gail said nervously. "We didn't even tell Bobby. We just said we had something that we needed to take care of, and that we'll be down to see them as soon as we can. Now, let's go. I'm anxious to get this done. For several reasons."

The quartet popped out.

"What do you mean?" Frank was asking Bobby angrily.

"What do ya mean, what do I mean?" Bobby retorted. "I told you. Cas and Gail are back, they're fine, and they asked me to come here and tell you all."

"Son of a bitch!" Dean exclaimed. "What the hell, Bobby?"

Bobby shrugged. "Hey, I was as shocked as you. They just waltzed into my office holding hands, same as always." His beard twitched. "I guess I was the safest bet, seeing as I already had my heart attack when YOU came back."

"So why aren't they here now?" Frank said, as Sam added, "And, how did she do it?"

"I don't know, fellas," Bobby said, putting his hands up in surrender. "Everything I know, you know. They said they had something that they had to do, and they'd come down as soon as they could."

Dean was smirking now. "Oh. Well, we won't see them for a few days, then. Boom-chicka-bow-wow."

Frank made a disgusted face. "Dude, that's my sister you're talking about."

"He's not wrong, though," Jody said, her lips twitching furiously.

"Hey!" Frank exclaimed. "In front of our son?"

Rob grinned. "I hate to tell you this, Dad, but - "

Frank put his hands over his ears, humming loudly. "I don't hear anything! Nothing!"

Everyone laughed, and Rob said, "She did it, Grandpa B. Riley and I felt so bad when she made us leave the house. But somehow, she did it. Riley must be flipping out."

Bobby smiled. "We all are, Rob. We all are."

"But that means you're not God anymore," Sam pointed out. "You OK with that?"

"Are you kidding?" Bobby said. "After all the crap that Gail has gone through, I'm just glad she's still talking to me. Cas, too." Bobby knew that Cas and Gail weren't putting off their visit to Earth so that they could get romantic, though. He had seen their faces. Whatever it was that they had to do, it was serious. But everybody looked happy now, so he decided to keep his mouth shut about it. They'd all been through way too much lately, without bringing up more potential problems.

"A toast," Dean said, as he and Sam passed drinks around the room. Bobby grabbed one, too. "To Cas and Gail, the latest members of the club."

"What club is that?" Rob asked, curious.

"The we-thought-they-were-dead-but-they're-not' club," Sam wisecracked with a grin. "It's kind of a thing around here."

Everyone laughed again, and then they lifted their glasses high and drank.

Liz tapped lightly on Leah's open door. The older Angel was sitting inside her room in an overstuffed armchair that looked about as old as the lady herself. She had the quilt on her lap, and she was sewing another patch onto it.

"Do you mind if we come in?" Liz asked tentatively.

"Who's 'we'?" Leah said, looking past Liz.

"Hello, Leah," Cas said as Liz opened the door wider. "Do you have a few minutes?"

She smiled, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Of course, my Lord. I always have time for the Almighty."

Gail looked at Liz, and the two of them tried not to laugh. Gail was always saying to her friend that Leah was sweet on Cas. Whenever the two of them would volunteer at the Centre, Leah would always ask Gail questions about Cas. Where was he? What was he doing? When was he going to come to the Centre again? Gail had joked to Liz that the woman was crushing on her husband big time, and the way that Leah was looking at Cas now suggested that Gail had been right.

Cas pulled up a chair and sat beside Leah, looking down at her quilt. "That's lovely stitchwork," he commented.

"Thank you, my Lord," she said, beaming at his compliment. "It's so nice to see a man who appreciates this sort of thing."

"I told you just the other day that I thought it was really impressive," Gabriel protested.

Leah looked up at him, making a "Hmph" sound. Then she looked back at Cas, smiling until her dimples were showing. Liz's shoulders were shaking now, and Gail was biting the insides of her cheeks.

"May I see?" Cas asked Leah. Gail thought the woman was going to swoon. If Angels could blush, Leah would be beet-red by now, she was sure.

"Of course, my Lord," Leah said, lifting the quilt from her lap.

"Please, call me Castiel," the Almighty said charmingly. Gail rolled her eyes. Oh, brother. If Leah was about six thousand years younger, Gail might be jealous.

"See, I have all of the important moments in our history represented here," Leah said to Cas. She pointed to various patches on the quilt. "Here are the Crusades, the Inquisitions - both of them - and the Dawn of the Beginning."

"This is extremely well-crafted," Cas told the woman, and he wasn't using flattery this time. The quilt was indeed very impressive. Every square was a detailed representation of the event she was describing.

"You are depicted in a couple of the squares, so far," Leah told him, "But I'm sure there will be more. Your heroism is legend." She pointed. "Here you are, defeating Lucifer on the battlefield. Saving Heaven. You were so brave, my Lord."

Gail rolled her eyes again, resisting the urge to tell the older Angel that other people had been there, too. Gail ought to know; she had been one of them.

"And here you are, rescuing people from a burning building, at great risk to your own personal safety," Leah said, pointing to another square.

Gabriel looked at the woman, incredulous. Then he looked at Cas, raising his eyebrows inquiringly. When had Castiel ever done that? Cas gave him an almost imperceptible shrug. Gabriel peered closer at the square. No way. Was Cas shirtless in the depiction? Cas saw where Gabe was looking, and he shifted the quilt, hiding the square from his Brother.

"I have just begun work on this square, here," Leah told Cas, indicating where she had been sewing. "This square will depict the defeat of one of the triad, with the jawbone. But I haven't received the Word yet as to which of the three it will be."

Gabriel was pacing restlessly again. The old lady was starting to babble now. He reached down to pick up a couple of knitting needles from her vanity table and she said sharply, "I'd be careful with those, if I were you."

He looked up. She was still gawping at Cas. She must have eyes in the back of her head. "Careful? Of knitting needles?" Gabe said skeptically.

"I crafted them out of my husband's and my son's Angel blades," Leah said casually, shifting the quilt again.

Yikes. Gabriel took his hand back, as if the knitting needles were red-hot. Liz made a coughing noise to cover up the laugh that bubbled up in her throat.

"Is that the Nativity?" Cas said, pointing to another square.

"Yes, my Lord. How wonderful of you to notice," Leah replied, smiling widely.

Cas was transfixed. When he had begun to comment on the quilt, he had done so to flatter her. He knew that it was easier to get a person to open up if you expressed an interest in their passions. This quilt was obviously her pride and joy. But he could see now that that was for a very good reason. "This is beautiful," he said sincerely. "The detail is amazing. It's almost like you were there."

Leah laughed softly. "I WAS there, my Lord. I am the innkeeper's wife."

Gail's mouth fell open. "The innkeeper?" she blurted out. "THE innkeeper?"

Leah nodded. "Yes. When Joseph brought Mary to the inn, and we saw that she was in the family way and about to give birth, we had no rooms available. So we gave them the use of the stables. Oh, yes. I was there that night. It was the most magical night of my life." She tapped her finger on the square. "This material is from the Child's swaddling blanket."

Cas gasped. He put his fingers on the square lightly, reverently. This was unbelievable. God's Son's blanket. He closed his eyes for a moment, picturing the scene.

"Do you recognize it?" Leah asked Cas. He opened his eyes, looking at her sharply. "Recognize what? The scene? Of course I do," he said fervently. "All of us who were around at the time remember that night very well. How could we not?"

Gabriel cleared his throat. "Look, as much as I've been enjoying this parade of Dad'd Greatest Hits, some of us have places to be," he said irritably. "Maybe we should get to the point, Your Lordship."

Cas was still staring at the square, but he realized that his Brother had a point. He tore his eyes away from it, looking at Leah. "I need your help," Cas appealed to the old woman. "I understand that your husband fought a Demon God in the War?"

Leah dimpled again. "Yes, my Lord. He was a very brave man, much like yourself. The Birth inspired him to go into God's service. Uriah fought many battles, but one of his greatest achievements was the defeat of the Demon God Bathshear at the Lake of Fire."

Gail's heart sped up. Now, they were getting somewhere. She was on Gabriel's side on this one: it was about time.

"In fact, I have included a square depicting that event, as well," Leah said to Cas, shifting the quilt again. "I hope that isn't Pride. But it was a historic event, at the time. Unfortunately, Bathshear's apprentice, Ammit, has now taken over the Lake. But for many years, it was bereft of souls, and we had Uriah to thank for that."

"His apprentice?" Gail said, puzzled.

"It can take thousands of years for a Demon to rise through the ranks," Cas said matter-of-factly.

"I don't usually indulge in idle gossip," Leah said, leaning forward and putting her hand lightly on Cas's arm, "but Ruth told me that her sister told her that Crowley gave Ammit the promotion, after she was...inappropriately involved with him."

Gail nearly slapped herself on the forehead. Suddenly, she was watching a really bad soap opera.

"Here it is," Leah said, locating the square in question. They all leaned forward to look. "Here is Uriah," Leah told Cas. "He had beautiful blue eyes, and a physique much like yours." She touched Cas's arm more firmly now, prompting Gail to wonder if she'd be sent back to Hell for considering smacking an old lady.

"This is the Lake of Fire, and this is Bathshear, writhing in agony. And here, you see Ammit, observing the battle," Leah continued.

"That's Ammit?" Liz blurted out, horrified.

"That is her true form," Leah said calmly. "When she comes to Earth, she can appear as anyone she chooses."

Gail sighed. Great. Just great. So they were either looking for a horrible creature with the head of a dog, the body of a lizard, and the talons of an eagle, or they were looking for...anyone. Fantastic.

"Where is the Lake, Leah?" Cas asked the woman, holding his breath.

"It's deep underground, fifteen miles north of Jerusalem," she responded immediately. "If you go to the Four Corners and stand directly in the centre, you will be able to descend. But I don't know how you get out, my Lord. Uriah was never able to remember how he came to the surface, after the battle."

"Terrific. It's like the Roach Motel," Gabriel groused. "You can get in, but you can't get out."

"Let me worry about that," Cas said, with more confidence than he felt. He looked at Leah again. "I have one more question for you: how did your husband kill Bathshear? What weapon did he use?"

"He used Bathshear's own talon, my Lord," Leah replied. "My Uriah cut off his hand with his Angel blade, and then cut Bathshear's throat with his own claw."

Cas nodded. Good to know. So, if they could get close enough to Ammit, they had the way to kill her. The trick was going to be getting close to her. Cas may be God now, but Ammit had been a Goddess for a while, and she was clearly very powerful. Any entity that had enough power to unease Death was not an entity to take lightly.

"We must go now," Cas said to Leah. He took her hands in his for a moment. "Thank you for showing us your beautiful quilt, and for the information. You have provided a valuable service to Heaven. To me," he added.

"Oh, thank you, my L-Castiel," Leah said in a quavering voice. He let go of her hand and rose. "Please be careful at the Lake," the older woman said to Cas. "The Demons who keep the Lake have enchantments that we do not possess. Even you." She looked down at the quilt on her lap, and then back up at him again. "I will pray to you when I finish the square with the jawbone."

All four Angels said goodbye to her, and then they popped themselves back to Liz's office.

Gabriel turned to Liz. "I'll come and see you when we're done," he said to her, taking her hand.

"You're coming with us?" Cas said, surprised.

"I let you down in Egypt, Brother," Gabriel said in a serious tone. "I wasn't there for you. That's not gonna happen again." Then, because Gabriel was Gabriel, his lips twitched. "Besides, if I don't get into a fight soon, Liz is gonna start questioning my masculinity."

Gail rolled her eyes comically. "Imagine what Frank or Dean could do with a line like that."

"That brother of yours is pretty quick with the one-liners, isn't he?" Gabriel remarked. "Makes me wonder if he and I aren't related, somehow."

"Maybe you are," Gail said, shrugging. "With my family, you never know."

Now that Liz had feelings for Gabriel, she felt concern for his safety. But she understood why he had to go, and the three of them combined should certainly have enough power to deal with one Demon, Goddess or not. So she gave Gabe a quick kiss on the cheek and wished them all good luck.

Gail was smirking again. She gestured to Liz. "You realize we're totally going to talk about that when I get back, right?"

Liz giggled. "It's a date."

Then the trio vanished.

"The Four Corners," Gabriel announced, looking around.

"Why do they call it that?" Gail inquired.

"Thousands of years ago, this was the town square," he told her. "Us old-timers still think of it that way. I used to hang around here with my buddies, plotting mischief. My misspent youth. I wasn't always the fine, upstanding man you see here today."

"Noooo. Say it isn't so," she said teasingly. "Why is it that I can picture you in Fonzie's leather jacket, snapping your fingers? Did you sing doo-wop?"

"It wasn't the 1950s," he responded, smiling at her imagery. "More like 50, B.C. Having said that, though, I do know a surprising number of songs from that era."

Cas was ignoring their banter. He was looking down at the ground, concentrating. He could feel the power emanating from deep under the ground, and the anguish of the souls who were being cast into the Lake. And he could hear Ammit, laughing.

"How do we get down there?" Cas said aloud, frustrated.

"She said you have to be in the centre," Gabriel told him, moving closer to where Cas stood. "That's not the centre. Here." He put his hands on Cas's shoulders, moving him to the left a couple of feet.

Suddenly, the ground around them rumbled, and Enochian symbols popped up in fire on a rock to Cas's right. The Angels peered at the writing on it, and Gabriel cursed softly.

Gail was still trying to parse it out. "I'm getting better at the language, but - "

"Only those who hold blades can descend," Cas translated.

"Dammit!" Gabriel exclaimed. "That's the stupidest rule I ever heard of!"

Cas gave him a half-shrug. "Be that as it may, that's what it says. As you no longer have your blade, you cannot come. But you can help me, nonetheless."

Cas looked at Gail, and she said, "Oh, no. No way, Cas. You're not going down there alone. Not after the last time. I have a blade, and I have powers, and I'm going with you."

Cas's expression was warm and loving. He smiled grimly. "Actually, my love, that wasn't what I was going to say at all."

Gabriel made a face. "Do I need to be here for this conversation?" he said irritably. He was bitterly disappointed now. He'd worked himself up for a fight and now, because he'd flung his blade in that stupid river years ago, he was going to be useless to them. Again.

"Sorry, Gabriel," Cas said. "I just know my wife very well. She thought I was going to ask you to stay up here with her, while I went down there by myself." He took Gail's hand. "And yes, that would be what I would normally do. But I have learned my lesson from what happened with Raguel. I want you by my side, my darling. I will protect you with my life if it comes to that, but I will not prevent you from helping me, either. When Leah was talking about me, having defeated Lucifer, she made it sound like I was the only one there. But I had a lot of help. You were very brave there. I feel very badly now that I did not correct her at the time, but I wanted you to know that I am very aware of your value." He looked at Gabriel again. "I was merely going to ask you if you will stay here. If we do not surface in half an hour, I'd like you to go to Heaven and see Ethan. Explain the situation to him, and ask him to send a garrison. I'd like to take care of this ourselves, but I just want to be prepared, in case we need the backup."

As Gabriel nodded, Gail said, "Maybe ask Paul if he wants to come, too. Give him a blade from the weapons cabinet. He might be able to help us out, down there. He gave me a shortcut to get out of Hell that nobody else knew about."

Cas's eyebrow rose, but he did not comment. They hadn't really had a chance to talk in any detail about her experiences in Hell, but they would be talking about it. Cas would make sure of that. Still, he thought her idea regarding Paul wasn't a bad one, so Cas asked Gabriel to include the former Demon, if Paul was willing to come.

Then he and Gail descended.

Ammit had been casting all of the souls she'd been ingesting over the last few days into the Lake of Fire, enjoying seeing their anguished faces and hearing their tormented screams as they sank into the flames. It was funny, really: the bad ones screamed just as loudly as the good ones. Sometimes, even more so.

This was getting tedious now, though. As she felt her power grow, Ammit was feeling ever more omnipotent. She was really savouring the feeling of great power. She, and she alone, decided whether the dead would be cast into the Lake, or spared. None would be spared, of course; she wanted them all. But she COULD spare some, if she wanted to. It was a heady feeling.

"Please," one woman was begging her now. "Please. I'm a righteous person. There's got to be some kind of a mistake. I went to church twice a week, I volunteered at the hospital, and I gave to a number of different charities, whenever I could afford it. I was a good person. Please."

Then some of the other people started begging too, and Ammit rolled her yellow eyes. What made them think that she cared? Still, she was growing bored now, so...

She waved one of her scaly arms and conjured a rope. "I'll tell you what," Ammit said to the people who were nearest the edge of the Lake. "I will place half of you on the other side of the precipice, and then I will stretch this rope over the Lake. Each side will pull with all their might, and whichever side is the weakest will be pulled into it."

"You expect us to play Tug-Of-War for our souls?" one man shouted angrily.

Oh, yes. So THAT was what it was called, Ammit thought. But she was an ancient being, who'd spent very little time among humans. Humans seemed to have slang expressions for everything. It was difficult to keep up. She shrugged. "Or I could just throw all of you in, right now," she said to them.

"No, no, we'll do it!" the man said hastily.

Ammit nodded. She'd thought so. But now she had her justification, if she'd felt she needed one. If challenged, she could simply say that if these people who were protesting were truly righteous, they should be unwilling to tug hard on the rope. Weren't those people on the other side just as deserving of being spared? Wasn't God always preaching sacrifice?

When Cas and Gail suddenly appeared in the cave, they were alarmed to see the screaming people already cast into the Lake treading the flames as one would tread water, and the people on either side of the great chasm, pulling mightily on the rope. Each side seemed evenly matched as far as strength went, and Ammit was watching avidly. Just as one side seemed to be getting the upper hand, the other side would dig in their heels and put up a fierce struggle. Ammit was captivated. She'd never seen such an exciting spectacle.

She had been so enthralled, in fact, that Ammit hadn't seen the couple appear, not until they raced over to the people pulling the rope.

"Help us, please!" one of the women shouted to the Angels.

Gail looked at Cas, then at the woman, with a puzzled expression. "Why don't you just let go of the rope?"

"We can't!" the woman yelled. "It's enchanted, somehow!"

Ammit was shocked to see God and his wife show up, out of the blue. She had no idea how they'd found the Lake. She knew that Castiel was also an ancient being, but if he had known where she was all along, wouldn't he have come here by now?

The Demon Goddess raised her arms, preparing to do battle, but then she noticed that the Angels were trying to help the people on the rope. Gail grabbed the rope on the near side and Castiel popped over to the other side, taking hold of the other end of the rope. Ammit lowered her arms, highly amused. She'd thought that Castiel was more intelligent than that. This should be fun to watch.

The Angels had panicked. They had been in such a rush to help the people that they hadn't stopped to consider the logistics of what they were doing. Cas was the first one to realize how foolish they had been.

"Let go of your end!" he shouted to Gail, at the top of his lungs.

"I can't!" she screamed back. "It won't let me!" Now Gail was starting to regret her rash action. The side she was on was losing, and the line of people was moving ever closer to the Lake. They were losing ground rapidly now. She could see the unfortunate people at the front of the rope toppling off the cliff, and hear their screams of agony as they fell into the flames. Crap! She tried to pull harder, but she wasn't strong enough. She was trying to pry her hands off the rope, but she was stuck to it. Her feet started to slip, and she struggled for purchase. But it was no use. She could feel the heat from the flames on her face now, as she inched closer to the precipice.

Cas could see what was happening on Gail's side, and he was shouting incoherently now. They had just reunited, and now he was in danger of losing her once again. He should never have let her come. Or, he should have brought an entire battalion of Angels with him in the first place. What the hell had he been thinking? What was he doing, being God? Every decision he made was the wrong one.

Ammit was watching eagerly now. Both Castiel and Gail were glued to her enchanted rope, the same as the humans were. She couldn't wait. If God and an Original Angel were to be consumed in the Lake, Ammit would receive more than enough power to unseat Death from his lofty position.

Gail was hysterical now. No. This couldn't be happening. She closed her eyes in terror, flashing back to the utter agony of the flames licking up her body from her feet, when Crowley had burned her at the stake in Camelot. Now she was screaming loudly. Oh, God. Heavenly Father, please don't let me die like this. Not again. I'm sorry I lied to Death. She opened her mouth wide in desperation, attempting to expel her essence out of her vessel. Maybe she could enter Cas, just long enough for him to get her into another vessel. But she couldn't expel her essence, either. She was screwed.

Gail's toes were hanging over the precipice now, and Cas was losing his mind. He had tried everything she had tried, and he was also unable to break the enchantment. Now, he was praying to the Father, too. Please spare her this agony. Please. Please.

Suddenly, Paul appeared on Cas's side of the cliff.

"Paul!" Cas screamed. "Help! Please!"

Instinctively, Paul ran towards where Cas was. "No!" Cas shouted. "Help Gail!"

But it was too late; Paul had already taken the rope in his hands. Cas yelled incoherently again, in fear and frustration.

Then suddenly, Cas was freed from the enchantment. The instant the rope fell from his hands, he popped over to Gail's side. But then, he paused. What should he do now? In desperation, he put his arms around her, to help her pull.

As soon as Cas's hands covered Gail's on the rope, the bright white glow came from his fingertips, tinged with blue. The glow mixed with the golden essence that had come out of her hands the instant that he had touched her, and the rope disintegrated.

The people on either side of the precipice fell safely to the ground, exhausted, as Ammit howled with rage. She took a deep breath, then another, trying to calm herself. She had never seen anything like that before. She had heard of Castiel by reputation, of course, but she had thought that her enchantment was unbreakable. That was the same spell she had planned to use on Death. But now, she was concerned. Bathshear had passed his knowledge and his enchantments on to her before he had met his demise, and he had assured her that the rope would work on the most powerful entities in existence. Ammit had been counting on that rope to bind Death. But if Castiel could break it, there was every reason to believe that Death could, too. And, extra power or no, there was no way that Ammit could afford to gamble with Death and lose. Nor could she defeat the Archangels Raguel or Gabriel in a straight fight. Now, she did not dare try to take on Death without at least one of the Books in her hands. But she still had no idea where they were, or how to find them.

She let out another scream of rage. Already, she could feel the surge of power she'd experienced from burning the Righteous dissipate, much like a seasoned drug addict's high wears off shortly after using. She beckoned with one clawed arm, and Mark came out from behind a rock. He was wearing a choke collar attached to a chain, which Ammit yanked on now.

"You told me my rope would work," she snarled at him. "You said that Castiel would be too weak to break it."

Mark was choking, but even if he hadn't been, he had no idea what to say. Of course he'd said that. He'd said it because he'd known it was what she'd wanted to hear. Ever since she'd eaten his heart on Earth, he had been kept prisoner by her in this underground cave. Mark had pleaded with her not to throw him in the Lake, which was the final death for any entity. He could provide her with vital information on Castiel and the others, Mark had argued persuasively. So Ammit had allowed him to live, but as her pet. He soon learned the kinds of things to say that would appease her, and make her feel more powerful. And it was a good thing, too, because as time had gone on, it had become increasingly apparent that Mark had very little useful information to give her. Things had changed a lot over the years, and Castiel had changed, too. When Castiel and Gail had combined to disintegrate that rope, Mark had been watching from his perch behind the rock, whimpering in fear. He had known how angry Ammit was going to be when that happened.

Cas, Gail and Paul had all gotten to their feet now, and Cas was striding purposefully towards Ammit with his blade drawn. He was eyeing her wrists. If he could get close enough to her to cut off one of her hands, he could cut her throat with her own claw, as Uriah had done to Bathshear.

Ammit felt fear now. Castiel was rushing towards her, his jaw set with determination. She pushed Mark in front of her as a shield.

Cas laughed derisively. "If you think for one moment that I will hesitate to run my blade right through that piece of filth - "

"Please, save me from her, Castiel," Mark begged plaintively.

Gail and Paul exchanged incredulous looks. He had to be kidding with that.

"I will cast him into the Lake," Ammit warned Cas.

Cas was smiling without any humour now, and the sharklike glint appeared in his eyes. "Be my guest," he said calmly. "He could benefit from a good cleansing by fire." He looked at Mark, and his glare was penetrating. "Tell me, did Felicia beg for her life like that, you coward?" He started to move closer to where they stood.

Ammit was afraid of Castiel's calm advance, but she was also becoming enraged again. A part of her had been hoping that as a Gospel writer, Mark might have been valuable enough to use as a bargaining chip. "You are useless to me!" she screamed at Mark. She yanked hard on the chain, flinging him into the Lake.

And then, she disappeared.

Cas swore viciously, as Gail and Paul rushed over to where he stood.

"Watch it, Castiel, there's a lady here," Paul quipped.

"I should have thrown my knife right through him," Cas said through gritted teeth. "I should have cut his head off. Anything, to get to her."

"Why didn't you just zap her with your Godly power?" Paul asked him.

"Don't you think I tried that?!" Cas asked him furiously. "I was unable!"

"OK, Boss, OK," Paul said, holding his hands up in supplication. "Take it easy."

Cas took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I'm sorry, Paul." He looked over to the people who were still laying on the ground on either side of the Lake, and then, at the Lake itself. Mark was screaming in agony, sinking slowly into the flames. That was the only thing about this whole mess that had turned out the way it should. "I'm going to see if I can help those people," Cas told them. He gave Gail a quick, tender kiss on the forehead. "Thank you for your help, Paul."

As Cas moved towards the victims, Gail looked up at Paul. "Where did you come from?" she asked him. "Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, but..."

He grinned. "Gabriel was antsy, so he popped up and over to the boardroom. Told me you thought I might come in handy for this particular mission. You should have asked me right away, Boo. Not only did I know how to get down here, but I also know how to get back up."

Her face broke into a relieved smile. "Oh, Paul! That's great! But, how do you know that?"

He winked, nudging her. "Crowley has loose lips when he drinks. Let's just put it that way."

Despite the heat from their proximity to the Lake of Fire, Gail shivered for a second. She had been so busy since her sojourn in Hell that she hadn't had the chance to process her feelings about that whole ordeal yet. And maybe that was just as well.

Cas had been putting his hand on the victims' heads, ascending them to the Garden to be sorted. So far, every person whose mind he had read had been a good person, not deserving of being here. Now he was even angrier with Ammit. If this was what she was doing, she had to be stopped.

When the last of the souls were gone, the Angels glanced back at the Lake. Only Mark's hand was visible now, as he sank into the flames. He had stopped screaming.

"Adios, motherf-" Paul glanced at Gail, and then he checked himself: "-lover."

She laughed, then took him by the hand, reaching for Cas's hand with her other one. "Let's go," she said, and Paul took the Demon knife he had borrowed from Heaven's weapons room, courtesy of Gabriel, and held it aloft. After a moment, a spark jumped out of the Lake and landed on the blade, making it glow a bright red. Then, an instant later, the three of them were back at the Four Corners, and an anxious Gabriel was rushing towards them.

"Oh, man," he said to Cas. "Thank - well, YOU - you guys are OK."

"We're fine," Cas told him, "but Ammit escaped."

Gabriel frowned. "Holy crap. So, all of this was for nothing? Great. I was so worried. You were gone for so long."

Gail's forehead wrinkled. "No, we weren't. We were only down there for - what? - fifteen minutes or so?" she said, looking at Cas for confirmation.

"Nuh-uh," Gabe said sassily. "Try a couple of hours. Longer, even. I waited the half hour, and then I went to Heaven. I went to see Paul first, and he said he could get you guys out. So I elected not to bring any soldiers. I hope that was OK."

Cas was fuming inside. On the one hand, he was extremely grateful that Paul had shown up when he had, to help save Gail from being pulled into the Lake. Her safety was his top priority, of course. But if Gabriel had brought some soldiers, as Cas had asked him to, perhaps they could have eliminated Ammit.

Now Paul was excitedly telling Gabriel about the rope, the Lake of Fire, and Mark's fate, and Gabe was looking at the younger Angel, bemused. How different he was from his father, Gabriel was thinking. Raphael had been a giant douche. But, Gabriel was puzzled now.

"It sounds like that was one of Bathshear's spells," he mused aloud. The Archangel looked at Cas. "I'm surprised you were able to break it. Even I couldn't do that years ago, when those belly-dancing twins tied me up with one of those ropes in Mesopotamia. Not that I tried that hard to get out of it." He waggled an eyebrow at Gail, who rolled her eyes.

"You know, half the time I think you're making those stories up," she said to him.

"And the other half?" Gabe asked her.

"The other half is afraid you're not," she quipped, making a face. The two of them laughed together.

Cas was thoughtful. "Are you telling me that that spell held YOU?" he asked Gabriel, ignoring the byplay between the two. "An Archangel?"

"Yeah, but you're God," Paul said, puzzled. "Shouldn't you be higher up on the food chain?" Gabriel's lips twitched at the phraseology.

But Cas was shaking his head. "I have additional powers now, but technically speaking, if an Archangel could not break that rope, I shouldn't have been able to, either."

Gabe was eyeing Cas now. "Are you sure you're not holding out on me, Brother?" he asked Cas.

"What do you mean?" Cas wanted to know.

"Are you sure you didn't hold back a little of my juice from our little visit to Area 51?" Gabe asked Cas coolly.

"No. I mean, yes. Of course I'm sure," Cas insisted.

"Area 51?" Paul said with interest, but Gail held up a hand to quiet him. She was anxious to hear her husband's answer to Gabriel's question. They'd been down this road before, and it had been a very contentious issue between them at the time.

"I'm telling you the truth," Cas said emphatically, seeing the expressions on their faces. He let out a frustrated breath. "Fine," he said to Gabriel. "Come in and look, then, if you don't believe me."

"OK," Gabriel said. "I think I will."

The men opened their mouths simultaneously, and as Gail and Paul watched, the purple smoke came out of Gabriel's mouth, did a loop in the air, and entered Cas's mouth.

"Were those sparkles I saw in there?" Paul asked Gail, nudging her gently. She was trying not to laugh, but she had to admit that she'd seen the same thing. Gabriel's essence was certainly a lot brighter than it had been before. "I think somebody's in love," she said teasingly.

"Hey, I can still hear you, you know," Gabriel said, but he was using Cas's mouth to do it. "OK, this might officially be the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed," Gail said to Paul. "And that's saying a lot."

"Archangels are good at multi-tasking," Gabriel/Cas said. "Just because I'm in here searching Cas's mind doesn't mean that I can't still hear you. But I'm trying to talk to Castiel now, so gimme a second."

Gabriel was walking down the hallways of Cas's mind. There were a lot of doors there. Some of them were open, but a number were locked, as well.

"Nice try," Cas said to his Brother. "I know you. All of the intimate moments with my wife are private. That's why those doors are locked."

"There's a lot of locked doors here," Gabriel remarked, smirking. "You dog, you. Atta boy, Cas."

Cas made no comment, but his lips twitched briefly. Meanwhile, Gail was watching his facial expressions change, as he was Gabriel, then Cas, then Gabriel again. It was freaking her out. Both men were in her husband's body right now, talking to each other. And here she was, talking to Paul, a former Demon-turned-Angel who was the son of Raphael, another Archangel who Cas had killed, and who had butted heads with Gabriel, back in the day. Surreal was an understatement for how this felt right now. She was going to have to lay down in a minute, from all the spinning her head was doing.

"You doing all right there, Kitten?" Gabriel said. Cas's mouth was grinning now. "You'd better watch it. Now that I'm in your husband, so to speak, I can hear what you're thinking."

"Can you?" she said tartly, raising an eyebrow, and he laughed.

Paul was staring too, and Cas's eyes shifted to him. "Raffy's kid," Gabriel said, shaking Cas's head. "I can't get over it. Your dad and Cas and I had some moments with each other back in the day, that's for sure."

"I'm aware," Paul said dryly. Just as Gabriel didn't quite know what to make of Paul, Paul wasn't quite sure how to take Gabriel, either. Cas and Gail seemed to trust him, but the guy struck Paul as a little...smarmy. Paul's father hadn't had anything good to say about any of his fellow Archangels.

"Raffy didn't have anything good to say about anything," Gabriel said sarcastically. "He was a giant dick." Gail did a double-take. It was so strange to see talk like that coming out of Cas's mouth.

Paul did a double-take, too. He hadn't said anything, only thought it. But then, he realized: God could also read HIS mind, couldn't he? He supposed he should be angry about what Gabriel was saying, but the bottom line was, Gabriel was right. His Dad HAD been a giant dick.

"Gabriel, you're making everyone uncomfortable," Cas chided him sternly. "You're here to look for any traces of your essence, not to read peoples' minds. That's an invasion of privacy. Now, please stick to your mission, and then leave."

"Yes, Your Lordship," Gabe said, rolling his eyes. He walked up and down the corridors, glancing into all of the rooms that Cas had left open. But it was just a formality, really. As soon as Gabriel had entered Cas's mind, he'd known that his Brother was telling the truth. It had just been so irresistible, getting the chance to walk through Castiel's mind. His Brother had always been a little on the enigmatic side.

But as Gabriel came back up the hallway towards the front door preparing to exit the house, he saw a set of steps leading down, and a white glow coming from the area. "What's that?" he asked Cas curiously.

"What's what?" Cas said, puzzled.

Gabe pointed to what he was looking at. "That," he said.

Cas frowned. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't see anything. Now, if you are satisfied, I would like to go back to Heaven. We are going to have to figure out what to do next."

Gabriel threw his hands up in surrender. Obviously, his Brother didn't want to talk about whatever was down there. Gail was looking at Cas curiously now. Maybe Cas was keeping something from her. It was a good thing Gabriel hadn't asked Cas about the mystery area out loud. But he'd better leave it alone. Gabe definitely didn't want to stir up any kind of domestic situation between the couple. They'd been through enough lately. Besides, Gail was pretty scary when she got mad.

"Okay, Brother, all right," Gabriel said mildly. A minute later, everyone was back to themselves, and the Angels all winked back to Heaven.


	5. Love Lift Us Up

Chapter 5 - Love Lift Us Up

It was late when they got back to Heaven. Cas and Gail thanked their friends and, once the men left to go wherever they were going to go, Cas popped Gail into their suite. He was physically tired and emotionally exhausted, and he was sure that she must feel the same way.

Gail had given Cas his cell phone back, and he used it to call Dean now.

"Cas," Dean said, his voice laden with emotion. It was funny how much feeling he could put into just that one little syllable.

"I just wanted to call and say that Gail and I will come down to see everyone tomorrow morning, if that's all right," Cas told him.

"If that's all right?" Dean echoed, incredulous. "What are you, nuts? Of course we want to see you guys. You scared the crap out of me, man. I really thought you were gone. Gail, too. So, how'd she do it? How are you back?"

"Tomorrow, Dean," Cas said wearily. "We'll tell you everything tomorrow. Okay?"

"OK, Cas. OK," Dean sighed. "We'll see you in the morning. I'll make sure Frank's here, too. He was really worried about Gail, when she took off."

They hung up, and Cas turned to his wife. "We need to talk," Cas said to her. "I want to hear about your time in Hell."

"It was way too hot, and there were a lot of black-eyed people there," Gail quipped.

Cas continued to stare at her. "Do not think that you can be evasive with me. I'm extremely familiar with that tactic."

But just as Gail was thinking about how much or how little of her experience there she wanted to tell him about, Cas held a hand up. "Crowley," he said.

Gail was puzzled. "Of course; who else would we be talking about?" she asked Cas, but he frowned, shaking his head.

"No, I mean that he is sending me a message," Cas told her. "Hold on."

"Well, well," Crowley was saying in Cas's head. "So, you're back. Colour me unsurprised."

"We were just talking about you," Cas said coolly. "All about how my wife was a guest of yours for a brief period of time recently."

"What did she tell you?" Crowley asked, keeping his tone steady.

"Not much, but we've just begun our conversation," Cas replied. "In the meantime, what do you want?"

"I understand there was a little incident at the Lake of Fire a short time ago," Crowley said. "I was interested to hear that you were there. I want to know why."

"I don't believe that's any of your business," Cas said calmly.

"It's entirely my business," Crowley said, with an edge to his voice. "I am the King of Hell. Therefore, the Lake is under my jurisdiction."

"Then you must know that Ammit has been stealing the souls of the Righteous," Castiel shot back. "Are you saying that she is doing so at your direction? Because if that is the case - "

"No, she's not," the King said in a clipped tone. "I was as surprised as you were."

"Well, where is she now?" Cas demanded.

"Never you mind," Crowley replied irritably. "And, just so you are aware, I have relocated the Lake, just in case you're feeling especially Godlike about it. The activities that take place there are my concern, not yours. Tend to your knitting, Castiel, and let me tend to mine. Besides, I thought that you and the missus would be far too wrapped up in your sweet and loving reunion to be prying into my affairs. Pass along my congratulations to Gail on her accomplishment."

Crowley signed off, shutting down the frequency immediately. He knew that Castiel would be angry, and rather than have his brother nattering away in his ear, the King simply chose to terminate the conversation.

Castiel wasn't the only one who was angry. Crowley was furious. Suddenly, Ammit had apparently just gone off her nut. He'd received the report that the Lake had been breached much too late to do anything about it. By the time the King had snapped himself down there, everybody was gone. But he knew that Castiel had been there, and he also knew that Ammit had been poaching Righteous souls. The stench of Good was all over the place. Then, a very frightened Demon slave had come out from hiding and told the King all about the scene which had taken place there. The slave boy had vividly described the action for Crowley as if it were a movie. The King could picture in his mind the tug-of-war that Ammit had forced the unfortunates to play, and the desperate struggles of the Angels. Then had come the heroic appearance of Paul, and then, Mark's fiery descent and Ammit's sudden disappearance. Crowley was enthralled. This slave boy's talent was wasted here, being Ammit's toy poodle. He should be writing scripts for movie studios. He thanked the slave boy for the information, and then cast him into the Lake. Just because.

Crowley had been gobsmacked. In fact, he still was. After Bathshear had been killed by that pesky avenging Angel, the Lake of Fire had been abandoned for a couple of centuries afterwards. But then, when Crowley took over the Kingdom, he had reactivated the place. The thought of throwing all of those wretched souls into a lake of flames appealed to his sadistic side. And he had put Ammit in charge of the place, for reasons that were none of anyone's business. But it seemed that she had gone rogue now, and Crowley had no idea where the little bitch could be. There was no way he was going to admit that to Castiel, though. In point of fact, the King was planning to stay as far away from Castiel and Gail for as long as he could, strategically speaking. Hopefully, his warnings to Gail would serve as a deterrent. He supposed that his little lecture about the tattoo he had given her was weighing on her mind. Crowley had been deliberately ambiguous when it had come to that spell, leading her to believe that its purpose was twofold. But truthfully, if Castiel or any of her other people were to come after Crowley with both barrels, the little mark he had placed on the back of her head would do nothing to prevent that from happening. He'd simply allowed her to assume that it would, in the interests of self-preservation. It amused Crowley to think that Gail would have to beg her husband not to attempt to kill the King, once God was to inevitably find out what Crowley had subjected Gail to in Hell. He could just picture the look of abject frustration on Castiel's face. That was, if Gail even told her husband about the mark, of course. The Angels were pretty much Winchesters by extension, and Winchesters were experts at keeping secrets from each other. If she was smart, she probably should keep as quiet as she could about that whole unfortunate episode. The last thing any of them needed was a foaming-at-the-mouth Castiel, with Godly powers, on the rampage. Hadn't they all just survived a Holy War scare?

However, even though the mark on Gail's head was ineffective as an assassin repellant, it would work very effectively if he were to ask her directly for a favour, and she were to refuse. It was a one-and-done thing, though, so he was holding out for the proper occasion.

But until then, Crowley had a Lake to re-staff, and a Demon Goddess to find.

Cas told Gail about his brief conversation with Crowley, and she let out a frustrated breath. "Great," she fumed. "You know he's not going to help us find her."

Cas was looking at her, his gaze penetrating. "What exactly happened after you...died?" he asked her. "I want to know everything."

"I told you, Cas," she said mildly. "After I committed suicide, I thought I was going to see Death. I thought he was going to take me to be with you in the Netherworld. But instead, I landed back here in Heaven, in front of my own Suicide Board. That was pretty embarrassing," she added, making a face.

Cas took her hands in his. "You shouldn't have done that, my love. You shouldn't have taken a chance like that. But, if you ended up back here, why did you not just stay here?"

"Without you?" she asked him softly. "What would you have done, if the situation was reversed?"

He sighed. "The same."

Gail nodded, giving his hands a squeeze. "There you go. Anyway, I made Bobby send me down. He didn't want to, but I didn't give him a choice. I figured I'd try to see if I could get Crowley to revive you."

Cas frowned. "You were trying to strike up a deal with the King of Hell to revive God?"

Gail shrugged. "See, now, when you put it that way, it just sounds silly," she quipped. "What can I say? That's how much I love you, sweetie."

Cas's lips started to twitch. He was trying to be stern, but she was just so cute. Besides, he'd been telling the truth: he would have done exactly the same things as she'd done. He would have done anything to get her back. There was no way that he could even consider an existence without her. It was unthinkable.

"But you don't need to worry," Gail continued, rolling her eyes. "He said no. So, I didn't do any deals with him." OK, now they were getting into more of a grey area. Strictly speaking, she and the King of Hell hadn't actually struck up a deal. He had just stuck a mark on her, and warned her not to renege on the favour he was GOING to ask of her in the future. Therefore, she wasn't lying, was she? Really?

Her hand strayed towards the hairline on the back of her head, where he'd placed the mark. She couldn't feel it, but she had no doubt that it was there. She should just tell Cas about it now. But she knew he would be furious, and they'd recently had the close call with that whole Holy War thing. So she pretended like she had an itch there, scratched quickly, and then returned her hand to his. It was so good to be sitting here holding hands with him, looking at his face. She'd been so afraid that they would never be together again.

"So then what happened? Did he send you back up to the bunker, then?" Cas inquired.

Another tricky spot. But once again Gail rationalized to herself that she wasn't lying, just omitting a whole bunch of facts. So she nodded. "Yes, Cas. But he made me into a human, because he couldn't ascend me, of course. That was fine with me, though, because at that point, I'd thought about using the revival spell on you. But of course, I've grown so used to you in this body by now that it never occurred to me that those aren't your bones. So then, I went back to the original plan. Because I was a human, I got Riley to pop me around, trying to find Death. Rob helped us, too. Eventually, Death received the message that I was looking for him, and he came to the house. And you know the rest."

Cas shook his head slowly. She was amazing. How many women could have done all that? How many WOULD have? She had gone through all of that, just for him. She had gone through all of that because she loved him that much. A lump formed in his throat, and tears prickled at his eyes. Cas couldn't believe how lucky he was. "My poor darling," he said in a strangled voice. He put his arms around her and cuddled her.

Gail burrowed her face into his chest. She could hear the reassuring sound of his vessel's heartbeat. No, she corrected herself. Of HIS heartbeat. How could she not have done all of that and more, to get him back? And she would do it all over again, if she had to. Every bit of it.

"We will go see our family in the morning and reassure them that we're all right," Cas said to her, gently disengaging from their embrace so that he could look at her face. "Then, I will excuse myself to request a brief meeting with Death. I will ask him if he will give us a bit more time to find Ammit. I will tell him how we were able to break her enchantment together, you and I. Hopefully, that will help to convince him. Then, if I can get his agreement, I want to take you to visit Patricia, so that we can get the first step of the annulment done. Is that all right with you, my love? The sooner we begin the process, the sooner we can remarry."

"That sounds good to me, Cas," Gail agreed. "Well, except for the part about seeing Patricia, of course," she quipped. But then, her expression turned serious. "I hope she's getting the help she needs, Cas."

"I hope she is, too," he said, nodding in agreement.

The two of them were silent for a moment, and then Gail said, "So, what do you want to do until the morning?"

"Let's go into the bedroom and not watch TV," Cas said, smiling.

They'd spent a very intimate night together, and had a very loving and hug-filled reunion with their family at the bunker in the morning. Cas had discreetly popped out to take his meeting with Death, but he and Gail had agreed that they were going to keep that particular mission to themselves. They'd just said that Cas had had something Godly to take care of, and everybody had been so glad to see them that they hadn't questioned it.

Now, the couple were waiting in a small sitting room at the mental hospital for the nurse to bring Patricia there. "She has good days, and bad days," the woman advised the Angels. "It's good of you to visit, though. You're friends from her workplace, right?"

"That's right," Cas confirmed.

"OK, I'll go get her, then," the woman said. She exited the room as Gail looked at Cas.

"Friends, eh?" Gail said dryly. "That's a stretch."

Cas gave her a half-shrug. "I know, but it was the only way they would let us see her." He was frowning. "I wonder what it would be like to be in a place like this, without your Grace, after having been violated like that." Then his expression brightened a little. "But, on the bright side, my conversation with Death actually went very well. I assured him that we will make every effort to find Ammit, and I told him about the rope. Then I told him that when we do find Ammit, I will kill her immediately. He accepted that. So, it would seem that we are off the hook, for the moment."

"And that was it? He just accepted it?" Gail said, surprised.

"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut, every once in a while," Cas said, and she laughed delightedly, kissing him on the cheek.

"Well, well," Patricia said sarcastically. "If it isn't the fornicators. What are you two doing here?"

The nurse who had been talking to the couple a moment or two ago made a face. "I'm sorry. Patricia seems to be having a bit of a bad day, today. Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"No, no," Patricia said quickly. "I'm sorry. I'll behave. I'm anxious for news of our...workplace. I've been so lonely here."

She sat down in a chair opposite the couple as the nurse looked on nervously. "It's all right," Cas said to the woman. "OK," the nurse said, "but I'll be right outside if you need me." She looked at them once more, then exited the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"I had to promise her I wouldn't try to kill you both with my bare hands," Patricia said wryly. "You know, in rape counselling, they try to tell us not to blame ourselves for what happened to us. But, I don't. I blame you."

"What is the point to this, Cas?" Gail asked him, frustrated. "What's this visit supposed to accomplish?"

"Let me answer that," Patricia interjected. "It's the first step of the annulment ritual. Am I right, Castiel? You have to face the person who has wronged you. In the ancient days, the only reason that seemed acceptable for a marriage to be annulled was adultery, and it was always because another man had seduced the wife. The men were allowed to bed as many women outside the marriage as they wanted, though. Isn't that true, Castiel?"

He was still frowning. "Unfortunately, that is true," Cas told Gail. "So, this first step was designed for the husband to confront the other man, and threaten him, telling him to stay away from his wife - "

" - Because she was his property," Patricia finished bitterly. "And to think, I was once a proponent of the ancient ways."

"The other man would either acquiesce, or he would refuse," Cas explained to Gail, "in which case, the two men would fight to the death."

"It's a pity we can't do THAT," Patricia said, inspecting her fingernails casually.

Gail turned to her angrily. "Is being here helping you at all?" she asked the woman. "Because it sure doesn't seem like it to me. You seem like you're just as bad as when we saw you last."

"Of course it's helping me, Gail," Patricia said calmly. "When we have our group therapy sessions, my story always makes everyone cry. How I was raped in the workplace, but none of my co-workers cared, or lifted a finger to help me."

Gail gasped. "How can you say that? We never even knew about it, until your hearing!"

Patricia shrugged. "I like my version better. It gets me a lot more sympathy."

"You shouldn't be lying to these people," Castiel admonished her. "They're trying to help you."

"Oh, yes," Patricia retorted. "They're very helpful. They tell me that it's not my fault. But I already know it's not my fault. They ask me if my rapist is in jail. I tell them no, he's dead. And then, they say that's good. At least I know he'll never hurt me or anyone else, ever again. But I want to scream and tear my hair out when they say that to me, because the damage has already been done! Do you know what one of them said to me? She said: 'One bad chapter doesn't mean your story is over!' Can you imagine? If I'd had my Angel blade, I would have taken it and cut off one of her fingers with it! Then, I would have said, 'One missing finger doesn't mean you have no hand.' See how she would have responded to that."

Gail was staring at Patricia with wide eyes. Good God. If anything, she had gotten crazier.

But incredibly, Cas was nodding. "I understand," he told Patricia. "No one here can possibly ever empathize with your experience. You were violated by Lucifer."

Patricia's mouth twisted into a smile, but it was a grotesque one. "Exactly. And you can say 'rape', Castiel. Let's call it what it was. So, for that tiny crumb of understanding, which is more than anyone in here has given me so far, I will apologize to both of you for nullifying your marriage. There. Now we don't have to duel to the death. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for the daily platitudes. Good luck with the other steps, Gail. If I know Castiel, and I'm fairly certain that I do, he hasn't told you about those, yet. Goodbye." Then she got up and abruptly left the room.

A minute later, Cas and Gail were standing outside the mental hospital, enjoying the sunshine and the cool fall day. As Cas lifted his face to the sun and Gail marveled at all the colours of the leaves, Cas's cell phone rang.

It was Sam. "Could the two of you come to the bunker?" he asked Cas, once he established that the couple were together. "It's kind of an emergency."

"What's the matter, Sam?" Cas said the instant he and Gail appeared in the bunker, hand in hand.

"Sorry, Cas. That was just a trick to get you guys here," Sam confessed. "OK, they're here. You guys can all come out, now."

"We're already out. Didn't you get the bulletin?" Tommy said, emerging from behind the bookshelves holding Barry's hand. The couple rushed over to where Cas and Gail stood.

"It's so good to see you both, alive and well," Tommy said, pulling Cas to him for a hug as Barry embraced Gail. "Please, don't ever scare us like that again."

"Are they here yet?" Frank said. He was coming down the hall from the kitchen, carrying a big cake in both hands.

"You guys really suck at surprise parties, you know that?" Sam said, trying to be stern. But he was smiling now, watching Cas and Gail exchanging hugs with their friends. Then Carolyn greeted them, and Baby Peter reached out to Cas to be held. Cas took Peter gingerly from Carolyn's arms, and gently bounced the baby a couple of times. Peter reached out with his little fist and grabbed Cas's nose, and everyone laughed.

"Hey, I'd watch that if I were you, Pete," Dean said affably, carrying forks and plates for the cake. Rob was behind him, carrying a bottle of champagne. "How old do you have to be to get your first smiting, anyway?" Dean asked Cas, smirking.

"Do you mean chronologically, or in terms of maturity?" Cas said, handing little Peter back to Carolyn. "I'll let you know, when you get there."

"Not bad, Cas," Frank said to his brother-in-law. He came over to where the couple stood, giving Gail a one-armed hug as he licked icing off the fingers of his other hand.

"Uh, thanks for the gesture," Gail said to her brother, "but you remember that we don't eat cake, right?"

"The cake's not for you guys," Frank told her. "That would just be stupid. Plus, when you go to a bakery and ask them to write 'Glad you're both not dead' on a cake, they look at you funny."

Gail laughed, shaking her head. "Only you could get away with a line like that," she told Frank, giving him a squeeze.

"Good. Remember you said that, 'cause I've got some more," Frank said, smirking.

"Never mind," Jody said to her husband. "Bobby just called. They'll be here in just a second."

As Cas and Gail glanced at each other, confused, Bobby popped in with a group of Angels: Chuck, Laurel, Kevin, Linda, Riley, Ethan, and Karen.

"Surprise!" Jody and Rob called out. The people in the room all started to clap as Jody showed the Angels the writing on the cake: "Congratulations, Chuck and Laurel."

"Welcome to your engagement party," Jody said to the couple.

"What?!" Gail exclaimed. "Since when?"

Chuck and Laurel walked over to where she and Cas were standing. Laurel held out her hand to them both, showing them the ring.

"It happened when you guys were...away," Chuck told them, putting his arm around Laurel's waist. "I took my inspiration from the two of you, and decided that life was too short not to tell Laurel how I felt about her." Chuck gave his fiancee a squeeze, smiling at her. "And, luckily, Laurel felt the same way. Although why she does, I'll never know," Chuck added.

"That makes two of us, Chuckster," Dean said. "Come on, you guys. Cut the cake, already, so Frank can open the champagne. I always liked a little taste of the bubbly in the morning."

"Dude, who ARE you?" Sam asked his brother, rolling his eyes.

"Chuck, Laurel, that's wonderful news," Cas said. "I'm sure the two of you will be very happy."

Gail gave both Angels a hug, and then Bobby said, "There's someone else here that wants to congratulate you both."

Chuck turned around to see a plump woman with brown hair and plain features standing beside Kevin. The young Musketeer had popped out and gotten Chuck's sister while her brother was otherwise occupied.

"Hester?" Chuck said, open-mouthed.

"Charles!" his sister exclaimed. She moved forward, opening her arms to hug her brother.

"Aw, geez," Dean said under his breath. He rushed over to Cas, grabbing his friend by the arm. "Come on, Cas. Help me get some champagne glasses from the kitchen."

"But I could just - " Cas tried to say, waving his hand in the air. Dean grabbed Cas's hand to stop him. "Come and help me get the glasses," Dean said again, through gritted teeth.

Cas looked uncertainly at Gail, who let go of his hand, shrugging. "Go get those glasses, sweetie," she said, looking curiously at Dean.

As the two men headed down the hall, Chuck brought his sister over to Gail to introduce them. As the women shook hands, Hester said, "By the puzzled look on your face, I can see that you know that Charles and I were estranged for a number of years. But when you and your husband, the Lord God, died, Chuck proposed to Laurel, and then he came to my house and told me that he wanted us to reconnect. That life was too short, and family was too important. Then he explained to me about all of you, and that everything he'd been writing about all of those years was true. Needless to say, I was more than a little bit skeptical. Charles used to run cons here on Earth years ago, to make money to finance his...other, dubious activities. But then, he took my hand and popped me over here to meet Sam and Dean, and then I had no choice but to believe."

Gail was bemused. She could just imagine what that had felt like for Chuck's sister. But, the way that Hester and Chuck were smiling at each other now, it looked like they were happy to have been reunited.

Hester craned her neck. "Where did Dean and your husband, the Lord God, go?" she asked Gail.

"It's Cas," Gail said, her smile widening. Now she was starting to get an inkling of why Dean had reacted the way he had when the woman had shown up.

"Have you set a date, yet?" Barry asked the couple.

Meanwhile, Dean was clutching at Cas, in the kitchen. "Cas, buddy, you've gotta help me," he beseeched his friend.

"What's the problem, Dean?" Cas asked, wrinking his forehead.

"Chuck's sister. She's the problem," Dean replied. His eyes kept shifting to the doorway. "She's got some kind of a crush on me, or something. Ever since he brought her over here, she keeps following me around, and she keeps...undressing me with her eyes," he said primly.

Cas smiled gently. "I'm sure that's not the case, Dean. She probably simply likes you. You're very likeable."

Dean's lips twitched briefly. "Thanks, Cas. But, you're not getting it. When she stands close to me, she...touches me."

Cas was puzzled. "You and I are touching, right now," he said, putting his hand on Dean's arm.

Dean rolled his eyes, but he was smiling now, too. "I really missed you, Cas," he said to his friend. "Don't ever do that to me again. OK?"

"I missed you too, Dean. I love you," Cas told his friend.

"Geez, you guys, get a room," Frank joked as he entered the kitchen.

Sam was right behind him. He grinned. "Hey, don't be so hasty. Maybe you guys should declare your love for each other in front of Hester. Then maybe she'll get the message, and leave Dean alone."

"See?" Dean said to Cas.

"You'd better deliver the message quick, though," Sam said, nudging the both of them. "Laurel wants an engagement album, so the women are conspiring to take group pictures."

Dean groaned. "Do we have to? Cas, can't you start some kind of a disaster, or something? An earthquake, maybe? Come on, help me out, here."

Cas smiled. "I'm sure you're exaggerating, Dean. But if it will make you feel any better, I will stand near you in the photos."

"Thanks, Cas," Dean said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Hester The Molester isn't gonna dare to feel God up."

"'Hester The Molester'?" Frank said, breaking into a wide grin. "That's pretty good."

"Be nice to the woman," Cas chided the men. "She and Chuck have just reconciled. I'm sure she just wants to get to know his friends."

"If she'd gotten to know me any better, that'd be OUR engagement cake," Dean grumbled. Frank and Sam grinned at each other. This had the potential to be a lot of fun.

"I want a picture with Dean, Sam, and Cas," Hester told Jody, who had been designated as the official photographer. "Chuck's best friends." Frank nearly spit out his beer, but he said nothing, just grinned.

Dean and Sam took Cas by his arms and put him in the middle, next to Hester. She frowned, but as she put her arm around Cas in back of the men, Hester somehow managed to get her hand on Dean's rear end, giving him a squeeze. He jumped, and Jody said, "We're gonna have to take that again. Stay still, Dean."

Now Gail was grinning, too. The look on Dean's face was just too funny. When the men had come back out from the kitchen, Chuck had introduced his sister to Cas, and then, as Jody was getting the camera ready, Cas had told Gail quietly what Dean had said. Predictably enough, she had found it hilarious, and the fact that Cas thought that Dean was overreacting made it even funnier.

"What do you mean, 'stay still'?" Dean fumed to Jody. "Easy for you to say."

"Have a little patience, Dean," Cas admonished his friend. "We want Laurel to have a nice engagement album." He looked at Gail. She had a Wedding Memory Book, thank goodness, but now Cas regretted that she did not have an engagement album, as well, especially under the circumstances. It was a lovely, old-fashioned tradition that not too many people employed any more. Perhaps, when they were finally set to remarry, Cas would ask Gail if she would like one.

Dean was getting mad now. Nobody was taking him seriously. If Hester was a man and Dean was a woman, everybody would be raising holy hell about it. If Dean was a woman and Hester was a man, Dean would have decked her/him by now.

"Fine," he said to Cas. "See how you like it." He reached around behind himself and grabbed Hester's hand, putting it on Cas's rear end. Cas's mouth dropped open as Jody said, "Now YOU look weird, Cas. Come on, you guys. Get it together."

Dean was smirking now. "What's the matter, Cas? Have a little patience," he said innocently.

"Here, let me help you out, Cas," Sam said.

"Thank you, Sam," Cas said, giving Dean a momentary glare.

But then, Sam took Cas's hand and put it on Hester's behind, as Hester gave Cas's bum a tentative squeeze. She couldn't believe her good fortune. The Almighty was almost as good-looking as Dean, in Hester's opinion.

Cas was becoming outraged now. "Sam, Dean, stop it," he said sternly. "Behave yourselves."

Dean was laughing out loud. This was too funny. He was just so happy to have his friend back. Besides, it served Cas right. "I'm sorry, Cas. You're right. We'll behave, now," Sam said contritely.

"Good," Cas said, removing his hand from Hester's backside. "I'm sorry," he apologized to Chuck's sister. "My friends can be very childish, sometimes."

Hester removed her hand from Cas's rear end, looking up at him. "That's all right," she said, smiling slyly. "I'm willing to stay here as long as it takes, to get a good picture for my brother's fiancee's album. As long as it takes."

Gail and Frank were hanging onto each other now, trying to hold in the laughter. "Ready?" Jody said to her models, sighing.

"Ready, Jodes," Sam said earnestly. Then, he took Hester's hand and put it on Cas's rear end again, just as Jody snapped the picture.

Cas wheeled on the brothers. "Dean, stop it!" he exclaimed. "It wasn't me," Dean protested, gesturing to Sam. "It wasn't me, Cas," Sam said innocently.

"Are you sure you want to be lying right to God's face?" Frank called out, still laughing.

Sam was reaching around Hester now, poking Dean, and Dean was smacking his hand. Cas was still apologizing to Hester, and Sam tickled the back of Cas's neck. Cas looked around angrily, but Sam had his arms folded, looking innocent again.

"See, this is what happens when your husband is made an honourary Stooge," Gail said to Frank, throwing her hands up and rolling her eyes. But she couldn't help but smile, too. It was so good to see the boys together again, being silly, after the ordeal they had been through recently. Gail had been so wrapped up in her own feelings of loss, when she had been racing around here trying to get Cas back, that she hadn't really stopped to realize how badly Cas's friends would have been missing him, as well.

"I give up," Jody announced. "It's like being a Kindergarten teacher."

"Actually, our kids are better-behaved," Karen said teasingly, smiling.

"That's because they're - wait for it - little Angels," Ethan wisecracked. He elbowed Frank. "Eh? What did you think of that?"

Gail's brother rolled his eyes. "Amateur," he said good-naturedly.

"Hey, Chuck, where's Hester been all this time?" Linda asked him. "How come we've never met her before?"

Chuck looked sheepish. "She and I had a falling-out, when I was a human," he admitted. "Basically, she washed her hands of me. But I completely deserved it. I'm just happy that she gave me another chance."

"The things we do for you damn Angels," Dean groused. He came over to the bar area now, pouring himself a half-glass of whiskey. Hester was right behind him, and her eyes were looking at him walk, as if she was trying to figure out how she could touch him below the waist again. But Hester clucked her tongue now, at what Dean had said. "You shouldn't talk to Angels like that," she chided him.

Cas came back to where Gail was standing, reclaiming her hand. "You should hear how he talks to ME, sometimes," Cas said mildly. He gave Gail an apologetic look for all the photo shenanigans, but she waved him off, smiling.

"Ahhhh, Chuck's OK," Dean said, lifting his glass to the Angel. "Well, for an Angel, anyway."

Chuck smiled, lifting his glass to Dean in reply. When Frank had poured the champagne and they had passed it around, the Angels had all taken a glass, for the formal toast. Chuck hadn't had any more than that initial sip, but he understood and appreciated Dean's gesture. "I think that's the biggest compliment you've ever given me," Chuck said to the elder Winchester.

"I'm glad you and Chuck were able to reunite," Cas said to Hester. "Family is extremely important to all of us. And you will be happy to know that Chuck is a wonderful asset to Heaven. We rely on him for many things."

"And he's writing a terrific script for the new Supernatural movie, too," Gail added.

"I'm very proud of him," Laurel said warmly, kissing Chuck on the cheek. He beamed.

"Would you like some more champagne, Hester?" Sam offered, bringing the bottle over. He felt a little bad about the mischief he and Dean had pulled on the woman a few minutes ago.

She smiled at him, extending her glass. "Yes, please. Thank you, Sam," Hester said, and then she remarked, "I haven't had champagne in years. It's so fancy. I don't know if Charles told you, but we weren't very well-to-do, growing up."

Chuck smiled thinly. "I think the word my sister is looking for is 'poor'. We were poor. It's OK, Hester. These are my friends."

"Hey, there's no shame in growing up poor," Dean remarked. "When our dad went out on Hunts, Sammy and I had to fend for ourselves. Sometimes he wouldn't come back for a few days, and I had to get really creative about our meals. We used to have condiment sandwiches, sometimes. Remember, Sammy?"

"Do I ever," Sam said, patting his stomach. "Yum, yum."

"No wonder you eat so much now," Frank wisecracked.

"Look who's talking," Dean retorted. "Besides, compared to us, you had it easy. Two parents, nice house...you were living in Little House On The Freakin' Prairie."

"Yeah, until the day I found my parents splattered all over the living room, like a Jackson Pollock painting," Frank said acidly.

Everyone was shocked into silence. Frank took a pull on his beer, and then he said, "Sorry." A moment later, he stalked off down the hallway.

Sam started in that direction, but Gail said, "No. Let me." She let go of Cas's hand, giving him a glance, and made her way down the hall. She got to the kitchen just in time to see the garage door close, so she popped in there, heading him off.

"What's going on?" Gail demanded of her brother.

"I said I was sorry," he mumbled unconvincingly. "Hey, that's the way I talk. Everybody knows that."

"Not everybody does," Gail argued. "Hester doesn't. We're just meeting her for the first time today. And how about people like Karen, and Laurel? They barely know you. You know, saying 'that's the way I talk' isn't a license to talk like a giant ass."

"You're selfish," Frank blurted out.

Gail stared at him. "What?"

Frank sighed. "I'm mad at you, Gail. I kept it to myself because everybody's so happy, but now that we're talking, I think you owe me an apology."

She was confused. "Wait a minute. How did we get from A to H, all of a sudden? What are we even talking about, now?"

"We're talking about you, committing suicide. Telling Bobby to send you to Hell. Like I don't have any friggin' clue what goes on there. Then you blow back in here looking for that stupid spell book, no apology, nothing, for what you put us all through. Then you bring my son over to your house, and introduce him to Death, and then you let Death kill you all over again! Then you and Cas waltz back in here holding hands, and it's just supposed to be business as usual. Well, forgive me if I don't do the dance of joy. In case you haven't noticed, the year hasn't been particularly kind to me, either. My wife had cancer, and my son got shot. You're a selfish little brat sometimes, you know that? What made you think that it was okie-dokie for me to lose you, after the year I've had? What you did really sucked, Gail."

Gail stood still for a moment, nonplussed. She was frozen in place. "But - " she started to say. "I didn't - " Then she stopped again.

Frank leaned against the nearest parked car. "Go ahead. You're dazzling me with your eloquence. If those were the points in your debate for the Office, no wonder you lost."

Gail let out a frustrated breath. The thing was, he wasn't wrong. But: "If you were me, and Cas was Jody, wouldn't you do exactly the same things?" she said softly.

"You can't compare the two," Frank countered. "I sincerely doubt, if Jody was given the option between killing herself and killing me, that she would kill herself."

"Please don't be funny now, Frank. I'm trying to be serious. Wouldn't you do anything to get her back?"

"OK, kiddo," Frank replied. "You want me to be serious? Then I'll be serious. Before Jody went in for her mastectomy, she and I talked about it. What if she didn't make it? What if she died on the table? What if the cancer had spread? It just about killed me, Gail, but she wanted to talk about it. So, we talked about it. And she told me to just let her go. She said that wherever she ended up, she would wait for me. But she didn't want to be like you guys, popping in and out of Earth. Being an Angel, but acting like a human. She said it wouldn't be fair to the kids, and it wouldn't be fair to me, in case I wanted to remarry one day. In case I wanted to remarry. Can you imagine?" So, no. I wouldn't have done all that crazy stuff. There's a difference between love and obsession, Gail."

"Obsession?!" she exclaimed, but her brother held up his hand. "Just wait. I'm not finished," he said. "What would you have done, if you couldn't get Cas back? If he was really gone? What would you have done?"

Gail was speechless. She had no idea. She had refused to consider that that could even be an option.

"Look, Sis," Frank said, his expression softening, "I'm not saying that I'm not freaking thrilled with the way things turned out. I love Cas. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear. We all love Cas. I'm just saying that maybe you should think next time, before you break our hearts. Okay?"

"Ok, Frank. I'm sorry," Gail said. She moved forward and put her arms around his waist. After a second, he hugged her back.

As the siblings were hugging it out, Linda was watching Kevin. He was having a laugh with Laurel and Chuck, and Karen and Ethan. It was good to see him laughing like that. But Linda wished that Kevin had a girl of his own. The only girl he had ever dated was Becky, and Becky had been all wrong for him. Linda was glad to see that Becky wasn't here. Gail had told her that Becky was a human now, and she lived halfway across town. Good. Good riddance, as far as Linda was concerned.

But Linda had a dilemma now. She wished that Kevin had a girl for a couple of reasons. The first reason was because she didn't want him to be lonely, of course. But the second was that Linda had been asked out, herself.

"Hello, Linda. How are things going on the Board?" Cas asked her pleasantly. "As you are aware, I've been a little bit out of the loop lately, as the expression goes."

Linda gave him a small smile. "It's funny you should mention the Board right now," she said to him. Then, after a pause, she said, "Can I ask you something, Cas?"

"Yes, of course," he said.

"What do you think Kevin's reaction would be if I were to tell him that another Angel has asked me out, and I'm considering it?"

Cas's brow furrowed. "I don't understand the problem, Linda. You and Kevin's father were divorced before you died, were you not?"

Linda waved her hand. "Yeah, yeah. Years ago. That's not the problem, Cas." She took a deep breath. "There are a couple of potential...challenges. There's the racial thing, for one."

"Oh. So, the person who is interested in you is not Korean?" Cas asked her in a mild tone.

Linda smiled. "Not even close. And there's an age difference, too. Although I guess that last point is kind of moot, in a way. I'm just not sure how Kevin would feel about it."

Cas looked at her. "How do YOU feel about it, Linda? I think that's the more important question."

"I like him, Cas," she said simply. "We sit beside each other in the boardroom every day, and every day, he pulls my chair out for me, just like an old-fashioned gentleman. Like you, Cas. He treats me like a lady. It's been years since a man has treated me that way. If ever. He suggested recently that we could see each other socially, if I would like, and I think that I would."

"Then you should," Cas said softly. "I wouldn't worry too much about what Kevin thinks. If this man makes you happy, I'm sure that Kevin will be happy, too."

Gail and Frank came out from the hallway with their arms around each other. They had talked for a few more minutes, had a bit of a cry together, and then, when the serious had gotten a little too much for the pair, they had let loose with the laughs and the jokes they'd been holding in during the photograph session.

Now they were smiling, and the siblings walked over to where Linda and Cas were standing. Frank slung an arm around Cas's shoulders. "I love you, bro," he said to his brother-in-law. "I just wanted you to know that."

"How much have you had to drink, Frank?" Linda asked him suspiciously.

"Not nearly enough, my lady," Gail's brother said happily. "Not nearly enough. Come on, I'll buy you a drink." He extended his arm for her to take.

Linda was about to protest that she didn't drink, and he should know that, but then she looked at Cas and Gail. Cas had taken both of Gail's hands in his, and the couple were looking at each other in such a way that suggested they weren't interested in talking to either her or Frank at the moment. Linda could only imagine what torture it must have been for the two of them to be separated as they had been, believing that they might never see each other again. Having spent a significant amount of time in the Netherworld herself, Linda understood very well what a lonely, sterile existence it could be without your loved ones. She thanked her lucky stars, and Cas and Gail, every day that she was back in Heaven now. Every single day.

Linda put her hand in the crook of Frank's arm. "Lead the way, then," she said good-naturedly.

As the two of them walked away, Cas put his arms around Gail. "Is Frank all right?" he asked her.

"Yeah, he's OK. He's Frank," she said, shrugging. "What were you and Linda talking about?"

Cas smiled, lowering his voice. "Well, I don't mean to gossip, but...I think she and Henri may be interested in each other."

Gail was delighted. "Oh, Cas! That's great!"

"She's concerned that Kevin might not approve," Cas continued.

Gail looked over to where Kevin stood, laughing with his friends. "Why? Because Henri is black?" she said doubtfully. "I would find that hard to believe."

"Or, it could be the age difference," Cas remarked. "Although, as Linda pointed out, when it comes to Angels, that's not really relevant. Besides, I don't think Henri is that much older than she."

"Well, in any event, I'm glad," Gail said, smiling. "It's good to see so much love in the family."

"Everyone's just following our example," Cas said, smiling gently. He bent down and kissed her on the lips. "I love you, Gail."

"I love you too, Cas," she replied. "I want to talk about the next step in the annulment process. What is it, and how soon can we do it?"

Cas frowned. He had been thinking about that for a while now, but he had not mentioned it to her yet, because the second step was going to be very tricky to accomplish in their particular situation, and he had not yet figured out how they were going to do it.

"Hey! Lovebirds! Group photo! All of us, this time," Dean called out. Jody set the camera on a tripod, and they all gathered together to take the happy family photo.

Gail was glancing surreptitiously at Linda and Henri now, from her seat at the head of the boardroom table. Linda was sitting in her usual seat between Paul and Henri, and she was peering at Henri's notes. Linda had confessed to her fellow board members that, while she was in the habit of taking notes for herself at their meetings, by the time she got around to looking at them, she had trouble reading her own handwriting. Henri had laughed, and said she was welcome to look at his notes, any time. Now Gail was thinking that there might be a little more to that arrangement than simple kindness, and she smiled.

Bobby rapped on the door, cracking it open. "Gail, could I see you for a minute?"

She excused herself and slipped out into the hallway. "What's up, Bobby?"

"I think you need to come to the hearing room," he said to her. "We've got a guy there I think you need to weigh in on."

Gail looked at him, curious. But she went back to the boardroom and asked Henri to take over the meeting.

They popped over to the hearing room, and as Gail sat in her seat in the front row, she looked at the young man seated in the witness chair. Bobby hadn't told her his identity, but the instant she saw him, Gail realized she did know him. Didn't she?

The young man was hanging his head, and his long hair was in his face, obscuring his features. But as soon as Bobby rapped his gavel, the youth lifted his face, and Gail gasped. Corey!

Her mind flashed back to that cabin in Europe, and a very frightened young man at the end of her Angel blade. They had ended up releasing him, but later, Lucifer told Gail that young Corey had committed suicide once he had been brought back to the compound.

Corey was staring at Gail now with wide eyes. "It's OK, Corey," she said to him. "You have nothing to fear from us here. I promise."

"Where am I?" he said nervously. "What am I doing here?"

"You're here to tell us your story, Son," Bobby said, with compassion in his voice. "Then, after that, we take a vote and decide where to send your soul. You're in Heaven right now, Corey. Depending on what you tell us, you might get to stay."

Corey's jaw dropped open. "You mean, I might actually get to live in Heaven? Even after what I did?"

Gail heard the hearing room door close softly behind her, and she turned around in her chair to see Cas, entering the room. He came to sit quietly beside her.

Now Corey's eyes were even wider. That was the badass guy who had scared the crap out of Corey after the woman had threatened to torture him within an inch of his life. And he was supposed to be in Heaven?

"Please speak freely, Corey," Cas said to the youth in a soft voice. "We are not here to harm you. Hopefully, we will be able to help you. But you will have to tell us the entire truth about who you were in life, and what you did. And I'll know if you lie. I'm God."

"Yes, Sir," Corey said in a small voice. He was quaking now, but then he cleared his throat and started to speak.

"When I got to high school, I was still a good kid," Corey began. "I went to church with my parents every week, and I used to go up and down our street mowing the old folks' lawns and shoveling their sidewalks in the winter, for free. Stuff like that. But once I got into my teens and went to that high school, I started hanging around with the wrong kind of kids. But that's not meant to be an excuse," he added hastily.

"Go ahead, Corey, you're doing fine," Chuck said encouragingly.

Corey sighed. "Anyway, I started to grow my hair long and smoke pot outside the school with the slackers. Then I quit caring about my grades, and then I started talking back to my Mom and Dad. By the time I met the Satanists, I just didn't give a - " he looked nervously at Cas " - a you-know-what about anything."

"The Satanists?" Kevin asked him.

Corey smiled ruefully. "Yeah. You probably know the type. Guys with long hair, piercings, skull tattoos...They listen to metal music, and they're always saying how they worship Satan. But, they don't. Not really. They just identify themselves that way to be rebellious. To be cool. And, let's face it, a lot of girls in their teens are just trying to find their identities, too. Many of them think they're attracted to bad boys, because they're just starting to experience their sexual awakening at that point in their lives."

Gail was surprised. "That's a very articulate way of putting it," she remarked, and Corey looked at her. "Believe it or not, until I started to act out, I was a very gifted student," he said sadly. "I was on an accelerated program. My parents were so proud of me."

Kevin was staring at Corey now. Sounded very familiar to him. If Kevin's mom hadn't kept after him the way she had, this story could have been Kevin's, maybe.

Corey's eyes blurred with tears. "I really blew it," he told them. "I just wanted to fit in with the other kids." He tried to smile. "And I wanted a girlfriend. But, look at me. I'm no prize. I didn't have much money, and I couldn't afford a car. What did I have to offer? So, I became a Satanist. And then, one night, I was doing one of the spells we got off the Internet in my room, and I heard a voice, telling me to go to Lucifer. It was so weird. I couldn't stop myself. I threw some clothes in a duffel bag and left the house. I didn't even leave my parents a note. They must have been worried sick."

The young man was silent for a moment, and then he looked at Cas and Gail. "It was horrible there," he said in a hushed voice. "The second I got there, I knew these guys were the real deal, and I was terrified. But, I couldn't leave. I tried sneaking out that night, but there were Demon guards all over the place. So I laid down in my sleeping bag, and I prayed. I'm surprised you didn't hear me. I prayed like mad."

"I wasn't God at that time," Cas said to the youth. "It's a long story. Please, continue."

"Oh," Corey said. "Anyway, you guys pretty much know the rest. But I never killed anybody. I swear I didn't. I know you didn't believe me then, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't have believed me, either. I went around with my squad and carried a knife, and I tried to look all tough, because I was afraid. But my knife was always clean, so I would dip it in some of the victims' blood and show it to those guys, so they would think I was one of them. But I wasn't, I swear!"

He took a deep breath to compose himself, and then he looked at Gail. "When you took me that day, it was kind of funny, because it felt like you were rescuing me. I didn't mind it when you said you wanted me to rat Lucifer out. I wanted him gone. But I couldn't tell you where the compound was! Then you said you were going to torture me, and I didn't even mind that, because that's what I deserved. It's what I deserved."

Then Corey started to cry, and Gail felt sick to her stomach. Bobby's expression was neutral, but Chuck, Kevin and Laurel were all staring at her incredulously.

"But it didn't matter," Corey went on, sniffling back the tears. "You saved me, anyway. When you decided to take mercy on me and let me go, I was going home. I was gonna apologize to my parents, ask them for their forgiveness, beg to change schools, and burn all that so-called Satanist crap. I had a little change in my pocket, so I walked and walked until I found a bus stop. I was going to take whichever bus came along to wherever, and see if I could borrow a phone, to call my parents in the States. Beg them to take me back. If my Dad would wire me the money, I was gonna work at whatever minimum-wage, part-time, entry level job I could get until I paid him back. I was gonna go to church three times a week, and go to confession. Whatever it took. I prayed the whole time I was standing at that bus stop."

Corey took another deep breath, then let it out slowly. This had been tough to talk about, but he kind of felt like he was in confession right now. They always said that the truth would set you free. Well, he guessed he was about to find out.

"But they caught me at the bus stop, and they forced me to go back with them. I should have refused. I should have fought them. Let them kill me. But, I didn't. I was too much of a coward. And then finally, it happened. They were attacking people in the park, and I was hiding behind a tree, too chicken to either call for help, or run away. One of the Demons must have seen me, because he just appeared there all of a sudden, grabbed me, and took me over to this older, bald guy, laying on the grass. The guy was begging for his life, telling us not to hurt him, please." Corey started to cry again. "The Demon said to look at that guy and picture my Dad, or the principal, or my priest. He said he represented every authority figure I'd ever had in my life, telling me what to do. He said to picture anybody I'd ever hated while I was stabbing him. Then he grabbed my hand, the hand with the knife in it, and he stabbed the man with it. I dropped the knife after that, but it was already too late. I WAS picturing the people I hated when I looked at that poor man. I was picturing Lucifer, and all those pieces of crap who were killing for him. I looked down at the man, and I said I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

Corey buried his face in his hands, and all the occupants of the room were silent. Gail hitched in a breath, and Cas took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Then we got to the house where the baby was," Corey said suddenly, and Gail looked up sharply. No. Oh, God, no.

"They wanted me to kill that baby, but I said NO!" Corey shouted. "No! Some things are worth dying for! I told them to kill me, right there and then. I was done. So they took me outside, and they beat the crap out of me. But they refused to kill me. Oh, no. Said they were going to take me back to Lucifer, and let him deal with me. Then they killed the baby anyway, and his parents, too. They killed a baby! Why would they do that? What could the baby have done to them? What could it do to anybody? It was a baby!" Corey started to cry again. Had he ever stopped?

"I finally stood up to them and said no," Corey said after a moment, in a more subdued voice. "At least I did that much. I said it was wrong, and I won't do it. So then, those Demons popped me back to the compound. It was night there, and Lucifer had sent word he didn't want to see anybody until the morning. So they shoved me back in the tent and told me to go ahead and pray if I wanted, because nobody was listening, and nobody cared. I would be praying for death once Lucifer got a hold of me, they said. They were standing guard outside, so I couldn't take off, even if I'd wanted to. But like I said, I was done. There was no way I was going to stay with those guys another minute. What if Lucifer had a way of compelling me to hurt other people? He called me to that compound in the first place, and I went, without a second thought. What if he made me kill a baby? I couldn't stand the thought of that. So I took the earring out of my ear and ripped my wrists open with it. It took a while, but I kept at it. And, you know what? At first I was crying, because after all of that, I was still afraid to die. But then I ended up smiling, 'cause I knew I was doing the right thing. Finally, I was doing the right thing."

Corey looked at Cas. "Go ahead, my Lord. Do whatever you have to do," he said, with as much dignity as he could muster. "I'm responsible for my own choices, and I'm ready to accept your punishment."

Cas stood and walked towards where Corey sat, bringing Gail with him. "We have to deliberate," he told the youth. Then he waved his hand, and Corey disappeared.

"I sent him back to the holding area," Cas told the panel. He led Gail over to the table where they were sitting, conjuring up a couple of chairs for them to sit in to join the panel.

Gail sat down heavily, taking a shaky breath. "Oh, man," she moaned in a quiet voice. "Holy crap."

Laurel was staring at her. "Were you really going to torture that young man?" she asked her incredulously.

Gail's lips pursed tightly together. "It's not that simple, Laurel."

"What do you mean?" Chuck chimed in. "Sure it is. Either you were, or you weren't. Or did you just tell him that, to try to scare him into talking?"

Gail was silent, but her silence was their answer. Now Kevin was giving her the same look. Really? "You guys weren't there," Gail said defensively. "You don't know what it was like. Although I'm surprised at you, Kevin. From what Frank told me, it was hardly all rainbows and puppies where you guys were, either. Laurel, you and Chuck weren't out there, fighting, every day. Wading in mud and blood. On constant alert for murderers, rapists, and Demons. And then, they started using chemical weapons against us! I was responsible for dozens of people by then, and they all died because Lucifer decided to go all Agent Orange on our asses. So don't you look at me like that. It had to end. I was doing my best to make sure it did. Do you think that dead baby he's talking about was the only one we saw? How much of that can you take, before you just snap?"

"Frank's hair turned grey when Matty and those guys died," Kevin said suddenly. "Tommy had nightmares. Sometimes he would wake up screaming. Jody used to hide herself someplace where she thought nobody could see her, and she would cry. She'd probably kill me if she knew I was telling you guys about this, but it's true. And I was depressed for months afterwards."

"So was I," Bobby said quietly. "I drank too much, and I made some really bad choices. I don't think there's any one of us who were out there who didn't suffer some kind of PTSD, after. But right now, we're here to decide on the disposition of that young man's soul. I suggest we stick to the point."

Chuck sighed. "You're right, Bobby. OK, I vote we ascend the kid. Give him another chance. I'm kind of a poster boy for second chances."

"I agree with Chuck," Laurel stated.

"So do I," Kevin added. "If things had gone a different way, that might have been me. I knew some Goth kids who used to listen to what they called 'the Devil's music', and they kept inviting me to these parties they called 'Sabbaths'. I have no idea what went on at those parties, but they had some cute girls that hung around with them. So I can relate to what Corey was saying. I used to complain about my mother watching me like a hawk, but if she didn't, who knows what kind of mistakes I might have made?"

Bobby was nodding slowly. "Well, I guess we're all in agreement, then," he stated.

"No, we're not," Cas said. "I am using my veto." He waved his hand, and Corey was back in the witness chair. Cas stood and walked over to where the young man sat. He looked down at Corey.

"What I am about to do is what you deserve," Cas said grimly. He put his hand on the youth's head, and the white glow came out.

"Allison, can you answer the door? I've got paint all over my hands," Gordon called from the living room.

His wife moved to the front door of the house, and she opened the door.

"Hi, Mom," Corey said.

His mother stood there for a moment, rooted to the spot in shock.

Corey laughed. "I know, I know. I look different. I wanted to be presentable for you and Dad. So I got a haircut, and these new clothes." He pointed to his ears, where Cas had sealed his piercings. "No earrings, either. I wanted to look good for church."

"Gordon!" Allison called out. "Gordon! Come here!" She started to cry. "Is it really you?" she said to her son, opening up her arms. "Gordon!" she called out again.

"It's really me, Mom," Corey said. He was sniveling like a baby now, but he didn't care. He took his mother in his arms and laid his head on her shoulder.

Gordon came running out from the living room. He hadn't even bothered to wipe the paint from his hands. He stared at the two of them.

Cas and the Angels were standing in the house, watching the family reunion. They were invisible to the humans, of course.

"I wanted to give him a real second chance, to live his life the right way," Cas told the group. "Corey is still very young, and I believe he has learned a valuable lesson. His parents believed that he had simply run away. Now they can be together again, and Corey will get the opportunity to grow up as a good and kind man."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Corey said to his father now. Gordon came forward slowly, putting his arms around the both of them.

"Gordon! You're getting paint all over us!" Allison exclaimed, but she was laughing and crying at the same time.

"Who cares? Our son has come back to us," Gordon said. He kissed Corey tenderly on the forehead, and Corey smiled.

"Thank you, God, for all our blessings," Allison said, sniffling back her tears.

"Amen," Corey and Gordon said at the same time.

"Jinx, Dad. You owe me a soda," Corey joked.

"Fair enough," Gordon said affably. "Come into the kitchen, and we'll talk. We'll talk about a lot of things."

"I love you guys," Corey said, giving his parents another hug. "Thanks for being here for me."

"Of course. We'll always be here for you, Corey. We love you, too," his mom said. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat." She patted his face. "And I don't see why you can't have that soda, if you want it. It looks like your skin has cleared up nicely."

As the family made their way towards the kitchen, Gail looked at Cas.

"I may have helped Corey out with his appearance a little," Cas said innocently. He took Gail's hand. "I know first-hand how much it improves one's outlook to have a girlfriend."

She smiled up at him admiringly. "What you did here was wonderful, Cas. I'm very proud of you."

Then suddenly, the group was back in the hearing room in Heaven.

"Do ya have a second, Cas, Gail?" Bobby asked the couple. They glanced at each other, and then they had a seat at the chairs that were still sitting by the panel table.

Once everyone was settled, Bobby cleared his throat. "I just wanted to add my two cents," he said in a gruff voice. "Thanks, Cas, for what you just did there. When I was God before, I didn't do the job; I let the job do me. I got all hung up on the paperwork, and the rules, and what I was and wasn't allowed to do. But now, I get it. You've made the job your own, Cas, and everything you've done, every decision you've made about the souls, has been the right one. And Gail, you should be very proud of yourself. Ever since you instituted this panel, there are a lot of people who are being given a fair shake now. In the old days, people who committed suicide went to Hell. Period. End of story. I should know. My mother was one of them. I've made my peace with that, but I knew there had to be another way. A better way. This is the more compassionate approach, by far. Sometimes, people deserve a second chance to get it right. Some people can achieve redemption. A lot of us are proof of that. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that we're awful damn glad to have the both of you back, and that I'm proud to call myself your friend."

Gail was touched. Bobby didn't often talk like this, so when he did, it meant a lot. She smiled at him, and Cas dipped his head in acknowledgement of Bobby's kind words.

Chuck grabbed Bobby's gavel and rapped it on the table. "Hearing adjourned," he said, to lighten the mood. "Now, let's talk about something vitally important. Let's talk about the wedding."

VIGNETTE - HISTORY LESSON

"Uncle Cas, can I ask you a few questions?" Rob said.

Cas and Gail were sitting on the couch in Frank and Jody's living room, holding hands as usual. After Gail and Frank's talk at Chuck and Laurel's engagement party, Frank's sister had told Cas she felt like she owed it to Frank to spend a bit more time with her brother and his family. What Frank had said to her about breaking his heart when she'd chosen to commit suicide had really hit home. Not to say that she wouldn't do exactly the same thing if given a do-over, but Gail didn't necessarily have to tell her brother that. But now that she and Cas were back, and together, she thought it couldn't hurt for the both of them to bond with Frank and his family a little more.

So they'd had a nice visit, but Frank and Jody had eventually told the Angels that they needed to go out shopping.

"We wouldn't necessarily expect you to remember, but it's Angela's first birthday tomorrow," Jody told Cas and Gail. "Frank and I wanted to go out and get a few things for her."

"Yeah, but nothing fancy or elaborate," Frank added. "Let's face it; the kid's only one year old. She's not gonna know the difference."

"Oh, so I should cancel that ice sculpture I commissioned?" Gail quipped.

Frank smirked. That had been a good one. It was pretty transparent what Gail was trying to do with her and Cas's appearance here today, but he didn't mind. At least she was here, and she was trying. He gave her major brownie points for that.

"You know, I could just - " Cas started to say, but Frank held up his hand. "No. Nope. Look, Cas, I know what you're gonna say. But, no. Don't get me wrong; it's great having God as your brother-in-law. But I don't want you to just wave your pinky finger and give Angela presents. I want her to learn from the start that that's not how things work in the real world." But then he smiled, so Cas wouldn't take offense. "I'll tell you what, though. If you want to do something for us, you and Gail can babysit Angela while Jody and Rob and I are gone. How's that?"

"I'd love to," Cas said quickly. He looked at Gail. "I mean, we'd love to. Wouldn't we, my love?"

"Sure, I guess we could do that," Gail said, but there was a note of trepidation in her voice.

Frank was eyeing his sister. "What?"

"I don't know anything about babies, Frank," she said nervously.

"You don't have to know anything," Frank said, rolling his eyes. "She's a baby. Goo goo, ga ga. You shove some food in her face, change her diaper, and put her in her crib. Boom. You're done."

"I'm very good at changing diapers," Cas told his wife. "Remember?" Gail looked at him. Yeah. He'd changed one, once. "OK, how about the formula, then?" she challenged him. "How much do you feed her? What temperature should it be? Do you have to burp her afterwards? Or is it like feeding Dean, and then it just happens naturally, on its own?"

Cas's lips twitched at that last part, but now, he was doubtful. She was right; there was a lot more to it.

"I'll tell you what," Rob had piped up. "I have some homework to do, anyway. So why don't I just stay home with you guys? I can show you how to do all that, for next time. What do you say?"

So that was how it had worked out. Frank and Jody were gone now, and Rob had been sitting on the floor of the living room, using his laptop. As it turned out, homework had not been a euphemism. Rob had started night classes.

"I decided a little formal education probably couldn't hurt," the young man told them. "So I'm starting out with a couple of classes a week. I don't want to load myself down too much, though, because I'm trying to convince Dad to let me go out on a Hunt with him, or to let me go with Sam and Dean. So I want to keep my options open. I'm taking a History class, just because I think the subject is interesting. And - you guys'll like this - Theology."

Cas's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. Then, Rob had helped them with Angela. To Gail's relief, it had all been pretty easy, after all. So now the baby was down for her nap, and Rob was looking up from his computer.

"Can I ask you a couple of questions, Uncle Cas? Unless you don't want me to call you 'Uncle Cas' anymore," Rob continued.

"No, of course I want you to call me that," Cas said, frowning slightly. "That's what I am. I like being an Uncle to you and little Angela."

Rob's lips twitched. "Well, technically, if Gail and I are brother and sister, that would also make you my brother-in-law."

Gail smiled faintly. "That's why I told you to just call me Gail. It gets too confusing."

"Well, you don't have to call me Uncle, but I like it when you do," Cas told the young man. "You said you had some questions?"

"Yeah," Rob said. He hesitated, and then he said, "Did Moses really part the Red Sea? Did he really bring the Ten Commandments down from the mountain?"

Cas sat back on the couch, surprised. He'd thought for sure that Rob's questions were going to be about important historical events. After all, Cas had been there for...well, all of them. But the young man had said that he was taking Theology too. And it would only stand to reason that an intelligent individual like Rob would have questions about the stories in the Bible. Now, the question was: how much should Cas divulge? He looked at Gail, and she was looking back at him, smiling. "You know what?" she said. "I would love to hear a Bible story from someone who was actually there. Here, let me get into story time position." She kicked off her shoes and arranged a couple of throw pillows on the opposite end of the couch. Then she lay down with her head on them, putting her feet in Cas's lap. "Go," she exhorted him.

"Moses heard the voice calling to him from high up on the mountain, and he knew he had to go to it," Cas began, as Rob and Gail stared at him, listening attentively. "So, he..." Cas faltered.

"Go ahead, Uncle Cas," Rob said, nodding encouragingly. "He what?"

"He..." Cas sighed. "I'm sorry. I can't do this. I can't lie to my own family." He put his hands on Gail's feet absently, avoiding her and Rob's puzzled stares.

After a moment, Cas looked up. "Moses never existed," he told them in a hushed voice. "There was never such a person. God did write those Commandments on a slab of stone, and the Hebrew people stumbled upon it, in their meanderings. But those Commandments were meant to be a first draft, only. Father was going to tinker with them some more, maybe add one or two more or do some edits. But before He had the chance, the people took what was written on the stone and began to use it as a code to live by. And because that worked out so well, God decided to leave it be. When some of those stories were written, the ones for the Bible, the authors decided that a hero figure was needed. To have the people just sort of find the Word by accident just seemed so..."

"Random," Rob supplied, open-mouthed at what Cas was saying.

"Yes. Thank you, Rob," Cas said, nodding. "It just seemed so random that it made the authors nervous. They were attempting to convey that everything that happens has a logical purpose, and that we must do as we're meant to do. What the Lord God means us to do. Needless to say, these men were not big believers in the concept of Free Will." Cas looked at Gail apologetically. "There were no women, I'm afraid." He sighed again. "The Bible is a remarkable book filled with memorable stories, and it intends well. But many of those stories only serve to advance the agenda of the group of its writers, who had decided that oppression was preferable to expression. 'Thou shalt not' definitely has its place, but what about 'Thou shalt'? 'Thou shalt love each other beyond measure'? 'Thou shalt be kind to one another'? How about a counterbalance?"

For an instant, Gail had a vision of Cas, sitting in the boardroom with those Upper Echelon men, talking like this. Wow. No wonder they sought to crucify him. It made her heart hurt to think that they had taken this beautiful heart and soul of his and crushed it nearly to bits by ignoring Cas, then ostracizing him, making him feel like an outcast. At one point, Heaven had even turned him into a soldier's soldier, an unfeeling automaton who blindly followed orders. Mistaking obedience for devotion. But that could never have lasted. Eventually, the cocoon burts open, and the butterfly emerges to fly free. And this particular butterfly's flight had included a pit stop through Hell to retrieve a very important passenger, Gail thought warmly. Maybe THAT story should be in Genesis. Because, in a lot of ways, it was Dean Winchester's rescue at Cas's hands that had really been the Beginning.

"Wow, Uncle Cas. You just blew my mind," Rob said softly. "Maybe I shouldn't be taking Theology class at all. Maybe I should just talk to you more often."

"No, I think it's always important to consider all points of view," Cas said thoughtfully. "Then you can decide for yourself what your belief system is. The idea of a Moses can be very comforting for some people. The concept of a very strong and confident leader is desirable in many contexts."

"I agree," Gail piped up. "And I think we definitely have one in Heaven right now." As Cas smiled warmly at her, she couldn't help herself: "But it's a good thing that Charlton Heston wasn't still around to hear that story," she added, "or he'd be mighty pissed off."

"Good one, Aunt Gail," Rob said, nodding approvingly. "He'd probably shoot you. Wasn't he the one who was all about guns?"

"I'm surprised you would know that," Gail said to Frank's son. "Isn't that a little before your time?"

Rob shrugged. "Google," he said simply. Then he looked at Cas. "Oh, that thing about guns reminds me, though. In History class, we were reading about Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Do you know anything about that, Uncle Cas? Did that really happen the way they said it did?"

"No," Cas responded matter-of-factly. "Lincoln's wife was the one who actually shot him."

"Oh, come on!" Gail exclaimed. She sat up quickly, accidentally digging the heels of her feet into a very sensitive area. Cas made an "Oof" sound, then lifted her legs off of his lap for a moment.

"Interesting," Rob encouraged Cas. "So tell us, what really happened?"

"John Wilkes Booth did go to that balcony to assassinate Lincoln, but when he got there, the President was already dead," Cas told them. "Lincoln's wife was seriously unbalanced. The signs had been present for some time, but her condition was ignored, as it was considered unseemly at the time. She had a small gun in her handbag that night. Her husband's men didn't search the First Lady, of course. So, when her mental illness overwhelmed her, she shot her husband in the back of his head just before Booth got there. When he burst through the door onto the balcony, Booth was just in time for the uproar. So he panicked, and ran. He told people subsequently that he didn't commit the act, but no one believed him, of course. But that gave Lincoln's aides the perfect scapegoat for the murder. It was much more preferable that way, for all concerned."

Rob was grinning now. "I wish I could bring you to class, Uncle Cas," he said. "Then we could throw the textbooks in the garbage, and then just listen to you talk, instead. Hey, I've got another one for you: Did Lady Godiva really ride through the streets naked on a horse?"

"Not really," Cas responded quickly. He was enjoying the boy's rapt attention. It was so seldom that anyone asked Cas these types of questions. It was kind of fun to show off his knowledge on a myriad of topics. Cas glanced at Gail. She had laid back down now, so he tentatively shifted her feet back into his lap. He supposed he couldn't blame her for her reaction, though. It would be very difficult to go for years and years, believing one version of events, only to be told that the truth of the matter was quite a bit different.

Now they were on safer ground, though. This topic wouldn't be nearly so controversial. "Lady Godiva was wearing an extremely diaphanous gown. I think she had wanted to be nude, but lost her nerve at the last minute. However, she may as well have been, because the gown was all but transparent, and it kept slipping off her shoulder." He paused for a moment, reminiscing, with a small smile playing on his mouth. Oh, yes. Castiel had been there, silently cheering her on. He had admired her activism, and early-onset feminism at the time. He told them this now.

Gail was eyeing Cas suspiciously. Yeah. She could just bet that was what he had been admiring. Cas saw her look, cleared his throat, and said, "Anyway, her ride served its purpose, which was to convince her husband to abolish the taxes he had imposed on the poor at the time."

"And that's why more women need to be in positions of power. Fully clothed," Gail said to Rob, somewhat dryly.

Her nephew grinned again. "If it's all the same to you, I'll just keep that mental image for a little while. I think I need a girlfriend," Rob joked.

Gail did a Dean-like double-take, and then she shook her head. "Well, I think that was a pretty frivolous question. You've got an individual sitting right here who's seen literally everything since the Dawn of time itself, and you ask him about a naked woman? Maybe we'd better be talking about you, and your role models."

"Sorry, Aunt Gail," Rob said, chastened. "You're right. OK, I do have a really important question for you, Uncle Cas. I just don't want you to get mad at me for asking it."

"I won't get mad. I promise," Cas said mildly. "What is it, Rob?"

"Can you settle the big debate, once and for all? Creationism, or evolution?" Rob asked bluntly. "Which is the truth?"

Gail made an "O" shape with her mouth. Wow. When this kid asked a serious question, he didn't screw around. She looked eagerly at Cas's face, awaiting his answer.

Cas was looking admiringly at Rob now. That was the kind of question that Cas would be asking, if he didn't already know the answer. He'd read somewhere that it was not only the right of young people to question things, but it was their duty to do so. Castiel used to be the same way. He had asked all kinds of questions centuries ago. Some answers, he had received, but many, he had not. Still, you could learn a lot just by observing, and he'd definitely had an inside track on the subject matter, being the fourth individual ever to have existed.

"Both," Cas told Rob. "Creationism came first. God absolutely created everything to begin with, just as people have always been told. But, once He had created certain creatures and organisms, they just sort of...took things over for themselves. Many species evolved from lesser species, after God had created the original copies. He thought that was wonderful. My parents used to tell me stories of the flora and fauna in the Garden, stories that were nothing short of astonishing. I regret that I never got to see it for myself."

Now Cas was looking sad, and Gail felt badly for him. It wasn't Cas's fault his family had been kicked out of Eden. He hadn't even been born yet. It wasn't his mother's fault either, although Eve had taken the yoke for her family and, indeed, for all of womankind. The whole thing had been Crowley's fault. Well, maybe not the whole thing. Lucifer had tempted a greedy, temperamental brat into doing something he shouldn't. But Lucifer was dead, and Gail was still pissed off at Crowley.

"Maybe we should ask another frivolous question," Gail said now, in an attempt to cheer her husband up. "The Loch Ness Monster: true, or false?"

Cas looked at her. Then he smiled, and gave her feet a brief squeeze. He knew what she was doing, and he appreciated it. "Once again, both," he stated softly. "It's actually a pair of sea horses, one male and one female. They're the only two remaining of an ancient species. They're too old to reproduce now, of course, but those beasts have happily resided in that lake for thousands upon thousands of years. They are of no danger to anyone; they merely want to be left alone, to live out the remainder of their existences there, together."

"Awww. That's sweet. The two of them together like that, for that long," Gail commented, smiling.

Cas gently squeezed her feet again. "Sometimes, our Lord God can be merciful that way. As He was with us, recently."

The two of them stared lovingly at each other for a minute. That probably would have made any number of the adults in their lives feel uncomfortable, but Rob merely smiled and said, "So, my Aunt Gail and my Uncle Cas are like Loch Ness Monsters. There's a headline for the tabloids."

Gail gave him the side-eye. "Yeah, maybe don't compare us to monsters, there, kiddo. People tend to be a little bit sensitive about that kind of thing, especially in our family. But for the record, I know what you mean. I'd be very okay with existing with your Uncle Cas for thousands upon thousands of years."

"Good, because that's exactly what's going to happen," Cas told her, smiling. He had decided: as soon as Frank and Jody got back from their errands, it was time for Step 2 of the annulment. The entire process was going to take long enough, as it was.

"You know what?" Rob mused aloud. He got up and went over to the bookshelf in the corner of the living room, pulling out a copy of the Bible. "We've been reading designated stories in here and discussing them in class. But I've gotta tell you, Uncle Cas, there are some really weird things in here. The Professor skimmed over some of them, but it's almost like somebody was drunk when they wrote some of these things."

Gail's forehead wrinkled, but Cas was nodding. "That's very astute of you to notice, Rob," he said. "Not drunk, just...bored. Let's see if you can deduce who may have decided to insert a few stories of his own into the compilation process? Someone who has been around as long as me, and likes to be funny?"

"Uncle Gabriel," Rob breathed. Then his face broke into a smile. "That explains so much."

"What are you guys talking about? What stories?" Gail asked, puzzled.

Rob was leafing through the Old Testament now. "Well, like...like this one. It's the story of David, who's young and in love with Michal, Saul's daughter. He offers Saul anything he would want, anything, to let him marry her. So what does Saul want?" Suddenly, Rob's face turned red as he looked at Gail. "Wait a minute. Maybe this was a bad idea. I don't know if I should say this in front of you, Aunt Gail."

"Well, you can't start the story and not finish it," she objected. "If you're worried that it's sexist, don't. I know that's how things worked back then. So what did Saul want for her? Fourty acres and a mule? A few goats, maybe? What?"

Rob and Cas looked at each other, each of them daring the other one to tell her. Finally, Cas gave the young man a half-shrug, and Rob cleared his throat. He supposed it was only fair. After all, he'd brought it up in the first place. "Uh...foreskins," Rob said hesitantly.

Gail looked at her nephew blankly. "Say what, now?"

Aww, geez, Rob thought. He really shouldn't have brought this up. "You know...foreskins," he repeated uncomfortably. Gail continued to stare at him, so he looked to Cas. "Help me out here, Uncle Cas."

Gail looked at Cas, who was squirming now, too. "It's when a man..." Cas started, and then he stopped. "It's when there's a little extra..." He stopped again, frustrated. How did one explain the term without sounding crude?

Suddenly, Gail laughed. "Sorry, you guys. You should see your faces right now. I know what it is. I was just having a little fun. Go on with your story, Rob."

Both men let out sighs of relief, and then Rob continued, "OK, well, anyway: Saul wants a hundred foreskins, by tomorrow. Don't ask me what on earth for, because I have no idea. So David goes out and gets two hundred, figuring Saul will be twice as impressed by that. He is, and David gets the girl. End of story. Weird, right?"

Rob flipped some more. "Then there's the story of Moses, meeting God for the first time. We know now that Moses didn't actually exist, but this story's got him in it."

"That's because the character was already created by that time," Cas chipped in helpfully. "Gabriel knew that, of course. His use of the fictional character in this portion of the story only served to confirm its validity, as far as he was concerned. And I suppose he had a point, seeing as the manuscript went to print with Gabriel's bizarre little tales included."

Rob nodded in comprehension. "Anyway, this story says that God was concerned about showing Himself to Moses, because apparently, no man could see His true face and live. So, God says He'll show Moses His rear end, instead."

"Get out of here!" Gail exclaimed incredulously. "You're making that up!"

"No, I'm not. It's right here," Rob protested, showing her the page he had his finger on. "See? In Exodus."

"Or, you could ask Gabriel," Cas said to her. "I'm sure he'd be quite proud to tell you."

Gail thought for a minute. She was remembering the time that Patricia had been in the High Office. Gail had sent Gabriel to Heaven while they were trying to figure out how to free Cas from Patricia's clutches, and Gabe had helped to keep Patricia distracted by somehow substituting photos of his own naked behind for her official portrait. She laughed now. "I don't think I will ask him," Gail said, shaking her head slowly.

"Are you afraid he won't give you an answer?" Cas asked her.

She made a face. "No, I'm afraid he WILL," she said dryly.

Cas smiled at her, and she smiled back. He gave her feet another gentle squeeze, resisting the urge to take off her socks and massage her feet. He knew that Gail liked that, and he loved to do it for her, but it seemed a little too intimate an activity to be doing in front of their nephew.

"Oh, and then, there's my favourite one yet!" Rob said excitedly. He was flipping pages again. "Where is that story? Oh. Here. Get this, Aunt Gail: Again, in Exodus, there's another story, about Jacob. It's one of the funniest things ever. Apparently, Jacob wanted some striped cattle. I guess boring old one-colour cattle weren't good enough for him. Anyway, what did he do? He painted stripes on some sticks and planted them next to his cattle field, so they could look at the stripes when they were...you know, getting romantic. That's the most ridiculous thing you could ever imagine, right?"

Gail smiled. "Pretty much."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Rob said cheerfully. "But you'd be wrong, because if you keep reading, the stupid thing works! It actually works. Jacob's cattle give birth to striped calfs!"

Cas was shaking his head slowly now, and his lips were twitching furiously. Rob and Gail were looking at him. "What do you know about this, Cas?" Gail asked her husband, curious.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't think it was so amusing at the time," Cas remarked. "After all, Gabriel was messing around with the Word. That was my viewpoint back then, anyway. But now, I can see the humour. Especially because I was the inadvertent inspiration for that particular story."

"Really? How's that?" Rob asked him, fascinated.

"One day, Gabriel and I were talking," Cas replied, the smile still playing on his lips, "and I mentioned something to him about thinking that it would be great if my sheep came in different colours. I told him that I would love to have a rainbow flock. Not only would the colours be a nice change from all of that white, but then, we wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of gathering the plants, cutting them up, and heating up the water to make dye for our clothes. We could just shear whatever colour sheep we wanted to wear. We had a laugh about that, Gabriel and I. That was back in simpler times, before all of the Angel Wars, and the ills that beset Heaven. I had a fanciful mind, even back then. I was more of a stickler for the rules than Gabriel was, but because I had so much time to myself, my imagination tended to wander, sometimes. He clearly used that bit of whimsy for his story about the cattle."

Cas was still smiling from the reminiscence, and he was kneading Gail's feet gently now, through her socks. It was as though he couldn't help himself. She thought it was so cute, but it was also making her want the real thing. This was neither the time nor the place, though, so she swung her legs off of his lap and sat up straight on the couch. The two of them exchanged glances. What they were both thinking about would have to wait.

Rob put the Bible down on the coffee table and sat on the loveseat that was extended on an angle to the couch where his Aunt and Uncle were sitting. The young man was thrilled. His Uncle Cas had to be the most interesting guy he'd ever been around. It was too bad he couldn't be a guest speaker at Rob's Theology class. And his History class too, come to think of it. But Rob knew that he could hardly walk into his classes and tell everyone what Cas was telling him now. Nobody would believe a word. What was Rob supposed to say, that God had sat on Rob's living room couch and told him all these things? Yeah, right.

"What about Jesus?" Rob blurted out, and Cas looked at him sharply. "I beg your pardon?"

Gail looked curiously at her husband. There was no way he hadn't heard Rob; they were sitting less than three feet apart. Cas's mind must just be elsewhere at the moment. Not that she could blame him. So was hers.

"What about Jesus Christ?" Rob persisted. "Did he exist? Was he a real person? Where is he now?"

Cas opened his mouth to speak, but before he was able, the front door to the house opened. "We're back," Jody called out. "Rob, can you come here and help me with the bags, please?"

Rob sprang to his feet and left the living room, passing Frank, who was just entering. "Yeah, we're not making a fuss about Angela's birthday at all," Gail's brother said, smirking. "Jody just bought about a hundred presents for Angela, a cake, and a whole bunch of food that Angela can't eat. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pony in one of those damn boxes. Go. Save yourselves. I'll call you later." Then he left the living room, and the Angels smiled at each other again. Cas grabbed Gail's hand, and he winked them out of the house.


	6. Suffer The Children

Chapter 6 - Suffer The Children

Cas and Gail were at their house on Earth, discussing the next step of the annulment process.

She had initially been puzzled that they had not gone back to Heaven after leaving Frank's place, but when Cas explained what he had been thinking, she understood why they were there.

He'd started out by sitting down with her on the living room couch. Then he had taken her hands in his, and then he had sighed. "I keep hoping that someday, everything will make perfect sense," Cas said to her.

Gail smiled ruefully. "Well, aren't you the optimist," she said lightly. "But for the record, I know what you mean, Cas. What brought this on? All that talk about history, and the Bible?"

"Yes," Cas replied. "I have existed for many millennia. Many, many millennia. That discussion with Rob has only served to reinforce that fact. Yet, in the larger scheme of things, I realize that you and I have spent very little of that time together, and even less time married. I seek to rectify that."

Gail grinned. "Is that your lovely, old-timey way of telling me you're not getting any younger?"

Cas opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I suppose it is," he said, smiling gently.

"Well then, I guess we'd better get to that second step," Gail said pertly. "But first..." She laid down on the couch, putting her feet in her husband's lap. "You owe me a foot massage."

Cas's smile grew. "I was hoping you would ask." He took her socks off, rubbed his hands together, and began gently massaging her feet. Gail lay back and watched his face. He looked so happy to be doing what he was doing.

"You know what?" she said to him. "I must be the luckiest woman ever."

"Why is that?" he asked her mildly. He was starting to rub the balls of her feet a little bit more firmly now, and Gail's breath caught. Still, she wanted to make her point.

"Because you always put me ahead of yourself," she told him.

"Of course I do," Cas said, wrinkling his forehead. "That's what love is all about, is it not? Look at all of the things you did to get me back, when I died. Is that not the same thing?"

"Nope. That was entirely selfish," Gail said softly. "Because I need you. I don't want to live without you, Cas. I WON'T live without you. Frank calls that obsession, but he's wrong."

Cas was truly puzzled now. "How can it be obsession if two people feel exactly the same way about each other? I can't live without you, either. That's why I want to move ahead with the annulment, as soon as possible. The second step is complicated in our case, and it is a little strange, as well. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that Gabriel had a hand in it, as he did with those bizarre stories from the Bible."

Gail sighed. Of course. Of course it was strange, and complicated. This was her and Cas, after all. Everything in their world was that way. Everything. Well, except for one thing, she amended to herself: except for their love for each other. That was simple, and if people wanted to call it obsessive, or co-dependent, or whatever, she didn't care.

Cas stopped massaging her feet. He was just holding them in his hands now, looking at her, while she waited for him to speak further. He took a deep breath and said, "Each of the spouses is to talk to the other's mother or father, and - "

"Ask for their blessing to marry?" Gail interrupted, thinking she already knew the answer. Cas frowned. "Sorry, sweetie," she said sheepishly. "I'll let you finish."

"I wish it was that easy, and that pleasant," Cas lamented. "No. When each of us talks to our respective in-law, we must insult them, and make them reject us. It's an annulment, remember?"

Gail sat up abruptly. "Oh, come on, Cas! You've got to be kidding me with this!"

"I wish that I was," he told her. "Remember, the aim is to dissolve the marriage. In ancient times, the parents' approval of the spouse was deemed vitally important. So, if the annulment was to proceed, the parents' rejection of the spouse would begin the dissolution of their bond."

Gail couldn't believe it. "So you're telling me that I have to go back to Creation and insult Eve? Great. Just great. And she seemed to like me, too. Maybe I should just insult your father, instead. I never met Adam when we were there. And, you? You have it easy. All you have to do is go to that house in Denver and insult a ghost, who doesn't even like you anyway."

But Cas was shaking his head. "No, Gail. It can be neither of those things. It has to be an original parent."

"Adam and Eve WERE your - " she started to say, and then she stopped. "No. You don't mean - "

Cas nodded solemnly. "God. The Father. My father. He blessed Adam and Eve with a child at their advanced age. Actually, two children. They were hundreds of years old when God touched Mother and gave her a baby. Then, a few years later, He did it again. Therefore, God is my original father."

Gail was astonished. "So you expect me to confront God, and insult Him?"

"That is how it is supposed to be done, yes," Cas said uncomfortably.

"I don't even know where to begin to tell you how many problems there are with this, Cas," Gail said, looking at him incredulously. "OK, let's start with the basics. Just where do you expect me to go, to have our little chat? We both know He doesn't exactly return His calls. And even if He did, even if I could arrange to have a sit-down with God Himself and get up the actual nerve to insult Him in some way, it's going to be kind of hard for you to remarry someone who's trying to crawl out of a smoking crater of Holy fire."

Cas's lips twitched, making her angrier. "This isn't funny, Cas! I'm really scared, here!" Gail exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, my love. But, He's not going to do that to you. You don't need to worry about that," he said, trying to soothe her.

She glared at him. "That's easy for you to say."

Cas inclined his head. "That is true, my darling. But I do feel compelled to point out to you that we at least have one dilemma in common. I will not be speaking to a ghost at a house in Denver. Christina was your adoptive mother. I will need to speak to Abigail, or Vincent. So you can see, we have a couple of challenges ahead of us."

Gail froze. Oh, crap. She'd been concentrating so much on the prospect of finding and insulting God that she hadn't even thought about that. Great. Fantastic. She sighed heavily. "Well, out of the two of them, I'd much rather you spoke to Abigail. Not that I wouldn't be delighted to see you insult the you-know-what out of Vincent, but I think we should let that sleeping dog lie. But, we have no idea where Abigail is, either. Everything we've tried so far to find her hasn't worked out."

Cas was working his jaw. "Not everything," he said. "I think we need to go back to Quinn's and interrogate Oliver. I believe he knows where she is."

Gail rolled her eyes. She wasn't as convinced. "I'll tell you what: why don't I try to talk to our Father, first? Then, if I'm successful, and if He doesn't smite the crap out of me, we'll talk some more about your end. Okay?"

"OK, my love," Cas replied. Then his expression brightened. "Would you like me to continue with your foot massage?"

"No," Gail said, and his face fell a little. "If I'm about to be smote off the face of the earth, I'm looking for a lot more than that," she quipped, leaning forward to kiss him.

Cas smiled. "You know, we haven't said hello to Ralph in a while." His arms slipped around her waist. Then he kissed her on the mouth, prying her lips open with his tongue.

They kissed like that for a couple of minutes, and then Gail said, "I think I'd like to say hello to Ralph a few times." She lifted an eyebrow to Cas, and he laughed softly, winking them to the bedroom.

They'd talked about it overnight, and Gail had come up with an idea that she thought was as good as any. So she'd told Cas that she was going to venture out by herself, and she would let him know if her idea bore fruit. "Why don't you go do some Godly stuff, and we'll meet up in a little while?" she said to him.

Cas kissed her on the forehead. "Are you sure, my love? I could go with you, if you need me to."

Gail looked up at his face. He was so sweet. They'd had an extremely romantic night, and for the two of them, that was really saying something. It was funny; in many ways, last night had been even more intense than the night they had been reunited on that field in Egypt. At that point, they had been so overwrought by their experience, so concerned about their family and friends, and so worried about potential repercussions from Death that their night together had felt more like relief than anything else.

But last night had been so passionate and so loving that Cas was having a hard time letting go. She reached up and touched his face, and he put his hand over hers. "I always need you, sweetie, but this is something I have to do by myself. Do you know what I mean?" she said softly.

And somehow, Cas did. If Gail was successful in her endeavour, she would be talking directly to the Father, and their conversation would not necessarily be very pleasant. Cas had advised her to lead off by telling God that she was there to fulfill the requirement of the annulment ritual. The Father should understand that, and if He did, He would understand why it was necessary for Gail to do what she needed to do.

"Yes, my love," he told her now. "But please, please call me if you need me, for anything. My frequency will be wide open."

Gail looked up at her husband's face, and she felt such a wave of love for him that it was almost dizzying. People often accused her of giving them the doe eyes, but Cas was giving her the puppydog eyes now, and he looked so cute and so forlorn that she almost gave in. But, no. She couldn't. She wanted to have a private conversation with God, even if it turned out to be one-sided, as usual. There were a few things she wanted to get off her chest.

"I'll see you soon, sweetie," she said to Cas, stretching up for one more kiss. Then, she was gone.

Gail popped herself to the cathedral where she and Cas had been married. The place was deserted at the moment. She'd been hoping that would be the case. She walked quietly up the aisle, remembering what a joyous occasion that had been. Seeing Cas standing by the altar, the look of happy anticipation on his face. Seeing all of their friends and family there, smiling. As Gail walked up that same aisle now, her footsteps echoing softly off the walls, she smiled at the memories. But then, she started to get angry. How dare Patricia take the best day of Gail's life and erase it, as if it had meant nothing? Yes, Patricia had had a rough go of it when Lucifer had violated her. There was no disputing that. But that didn't give her the right to take something as good and as pure as Cas and Gail's wedding vows and throw them in the trash bin, either.

Gail genuflected when she got to the pew in the front row, and then she sat down, looking at the altar. The Pope had stood up there and blessed their union, and it had been wonderful. He was a very nice man, a gentle old soul who had nothing but love for people all over the world. Gail smiled gently. No offense to the Pope, but maybe next time, they'd see if the Dalai Lama was available. Or Richard Gere. Didn't matter to her. As long as it was Cas she was marrying, who cared who the officiant was, or what religion he - or she - represented?

"I'd like to talk to you, Father," she said out loud. "Cas told me to tell you that I'm here about the annulment, but I don't think that's really necessary, is it? You know very well that's why I'm here. I'm returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak."

Gail took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, what was this, then?" she asked, gesturing around her. "Was this just a grander, more elaborate way of screwing with us this time? 'Let's see...I know. This time, I'll let them get married, but - surprise! - I'll have some crazy lady take it all back!'" She laughed mirthlessly. "'Oh, and I'll kill my son, too. See what she does with that.' Well, you know what? My feelings are not your playground. My life is not your game. If you like to play with people so much, why don't you write movie scripts, like Chuck does?"

Gail was warming to her feelings of anger and bitterness now. This had been a long time coming. "Let's just forget all the crap you've put me and Cas through in the past, for a minute. Even if we forget all that, why the hell did I have to be brought into this world, in this particular era, from such terrible parents? If this is some kind of lesson you're trying to teach me, it's failing, because I just don't get it."

She sighed. "I accept that I am the way I am. I know I'm far from perfect. And that's fine, because no one is. Not even Cas. Not even you. Oh, and don't get me started on your merry little band of Exalted Angels. Lucifer? Raguel? Mark, and the other Gospel writers? Raphael? Even Gabriel. From what I understand, he used to be quite the piece of work too, back in the day. He's about the only one I think there might be any hope for. But if he does turn out decently, it won't be due to anything you did. It'll be because he will have decided that enough is enough."

Gail let out a frustrated breath. "When will YOU decide that enough is enough? You've taken away our lives, multiple times, and now, you've taken away our marriage. If you're trying to test our love for each other, I think we've passed with flying colours. Again, and again, and again. Cas says I'm supposed to insult you? Well, I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that. To feel offense, you have to care, don't you? You actually have to give a damn. But I haven't seen any evidence that you do. None at all."

Her words echoed throughout the empty church, serving only to spotlight the fact that she was alone. There was no one listening. There never had been. "This is pointless," she said angrily.

Suddenly, Gail felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, startled, and then she turned in the pew to see a priest standing in the aisle, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I have a message for you, my daughter," the priest said. "God has a purpose for your pain, a reason for your struggle, and a reward for your faithfulness."

"Oh, yeah?" Gail retorted. "Is that right? Well, I don't care if He has a purpose. Let Him pick on someone else for a change. If there's some kind of big-picture endgame here, maybe He should just clue us in, and then maybe we could get on board. And it would be a lot easier to believe that there's some kind of a reward at the end of all of this if He wouldn't keep taking everything away from us."

The priest stared at her for a moment, and then he reached into his pocket, pulling out an envelope. "This is for you," he told her. He handed it to her, and then walked away.

Gail looked at the envelope in her hand, puzzled. Had God sent that guy as a messenger? WAS that God? There was nothing written on the outside of the envelope. She ripped it open and took out the single sheet of paper:

"My Daughter,  
It was so good to see you back here. The thought that you would come to the site of your wedding to my Son to find Me pleases Me greatly. Whenever people think of Me, I would prefer it to be in the context of love, rather than vengeance, or punishment.  
I did know that you would be looking for Me because of the annulment, but I also know that you are angry at Me for many other things. I know that you will find it hard to believe, but these events are not entirely of My doing. I did not foresee Patricia annulling your marriage. And I did not revive Castiel because things needed to unfold the way they did. I know that you do not understand, but I want you to know that I do not have a vendetta against you, nor am I attempting to teach you a lesson that you are unable to grasp. You are a very intelligent person, Gail. You always have been. And, you are quite right: no one is perfect. I created all of My children to be the way they are. And I have loved all My children, regardless of who they are, and what they have done. Sometimes because of what they have done, and sometimes in spite of it.  
I do care, Gail. I care very much. Parents need to let their children go, and to let go of them, to be free to make their own choices, and their own mistakes. But that doesn't lessen the love they feel for their offspring. If anything, it only increases it. Please tell Castiel that I am proud of him for the decisions he has made since he achieved the Office. And I am proud of you too, Gail, for standing up for yourself, and for your husband. Just like a loyal and faithful wife should. Just like the strong woman that my tests have helped you to become. I hereby reject you as a daughter-in-law, because that is a condition of the annulment, but I will never reject you as a Daughter. May you and Castiel have many, many years of happiness ahead. Know that I love you both.  
P.S.: Abigail's address is 609 Wade Street, Exeter, North Carolina."

Gail looked up from the letter. Wow. She was feeling so many things right now that she didn't even know what to do with herself. But then, she heard the sounds of bells, and people started to enter the cathedral from the back now, presumably for a mass. She put the piece of paper back into the envelope, glanced at the altar one more time, and then got up and walked out of the church.

The look on Cas's face when he saw the letter was almost worth all of the pain they had gone through. He read it avidly, and then he read it again, and then he looked at her, open-mouthed.

"Do you know how wondrous this is?" Cas asked her in a trembling voice. "This is a personal correspondence to you, from the Father, Himself. I know of no one who has ever received something like this before. No one. The fact that He took the trouble to do this...I don't know what to say, Gail."

Cas was so overawed that he had been temporarily rendered speechless. But Gail was still wrestling with that mixture of emotions. She supposed that she should feel privileged, really. But God had crafted His letter very much like a politician would, in her opinion. He'd said a lot without saying anything at all. All that "needing to unfold" crap wasn't really doing anything for her. Cas seemed to accept it with equanimity, maybe because he was a lot more used to stuff like that. But that didn't make it right. To her, that basically said that God was reserving His right to use them all as His personal little hand puppets anytime He wanted, because - ooooh - things "needed to unfold that way". What the hell kind of crap was that? If God was here right now, she would demand He tell her what had been so damn necessary about killing Cas.

But Cas was over the moon, and Gail guessed that in a way, she could understand why. Cas had been thirsty for any kind of love and validation from God, and this letter provided that. Although it was mostly directed at Gail, the letter also mentioned the fact that God was proud of Cas, and that He loved him. Seeing how happy that made her husband made her happy, too. So Gail kept her mouth shut about any residual anger she still had, and put her arms around Cas, giving him a warm embrace.

Cas held her for a moment, and then he pulled out of the hug. "We must think of a place to put this letter, a place that will do it justice," he said excitedly.

"Why don't you put it in a glass frame, and keep it on your desk?" Gail said. "Then, any time you feel discouraged, you can look at it and get inspiration from the fact that God said you're doing a great job."

Cas smiled. "That's an excellent idea! Are you sure you don't mind, though? Technically, it's your letter," he pointed out.

"I disagree. It's OUR letter," she responded with a smile.

Cas continued to smile at her for another moment, and then he waved his hand, preserving the letter as Gail had suggested. He stood the glass frame on the front corner of his desk, straightened it a bit, and then took Gail's hand. "Thank you, my love," he said to her. "Now, what do you say we take a trip to North Carolina?"

It was a small row house in a quiet, nondescript neighbourhood. Cas gave Gail's hand a gentle squeeze as the two of them approached the front walk. He had seen the curtains move at the window as they approached, so when he knocked at the door and there was no immediate answer, Cas did not let that deter him. He knocked again.

"I know you're there, Abigail. I saw you at the window," he called softly through the door. "I suspect you know who we are, and if you do, you know that we can simply come in, if we choose. It's up to you."

Immediately, they could hear the door being unlocked on the other side. Wow, Gail thought. She must have been standing right by the door this whole time. She took a deep breath. This was it.

Abigail opened the door to her daughter and son-in-law. Of course she'd known who they were. As soon as these two had winked themselves to the end of her street, she'd known right away. She stood there, saying nothing, just looking at them. Her son-in-law, the Lord God. Tall, dark, and handsome, as the cliche went. Ice-blue eyes that were looking straight through her. Judging her. And her daughter, diminutive in size but strong of will. Big brown eyes, wide as saucers at the moment.

Gail's eyes were wide, all right. Abigail didn't look a day over thirty. "He's keeping YOU young, too," she blurted out.

Abigail nodded wordlessly. So, they knew. That didn't particularly surprise her. But, Gail's use of the word "too" was intriguing. How much did she know, exactly?

"When family members come to your home, it is customary to invite them in," Cas said in a clipped tone. His eyes flashed, and strangely, Abigail smiled. She moved back from the door, allowing the couple access.

Abigail turned her back on them and walked into the living room as Gail looked at Cas quizzically. He was frowning. There was just something about Abigail that was disturbing to him. She hadn't yet said a word, but she had a certain bearing, a look which suggested...

"Oh my God, Cas," Gail murmured. "This woman's only a couple of dozen felines away from being a crazy cat lady."

Cas's lips twitched briefly as he followed behind Abigail, but he didn't allow himself to smile. He wanted to hold on to his anger. The hardship would not be for Cas to insult this woman; the hardship would be for him to make himself stop.

When they all got to the living room, Abigail finally spoke. "As you so astutely pointed out, my manners are deserting me," she said to the couple. "I don't get many visitors. I'm aware that it would be rather pointless to offer you refreshments. But you'll pardon me if I have mine. As you have also pointed out, Vincent keeps me young, in the form of a special drink I must have every day. The older I become, the more urgent the need for it becomes. I'll be right back."

She abruptly left the room, as Gail gaped after her. "Well, she's pretty forthright so far, at least," she said to Cas, bemused. She wondered how old her mother would look without the drink. Probably like Cathy had, just before she had shriveled up and died. Yikes. Maybe Gail had better start on a skin care regimen, or something.

Abigail came back into the living room carrying a tray that had three empty glasses on it, and one full glass that contained a murky-looking green liquid. She put the tray down on the coffee table and lifted the glass with the "youth shake" to her lips, smiling at Gail's expression. "I know," Abigail said. "I used to close my eyes and pretend it was a chocolate milkshake. Now I'm so used to the way it looks and tastes that it doesn't even faze me anymore." She downed half the glass in a couple of swallows, then put it down on the coffee table. "Besides, it beats the alternative, am I right?" Abigail continued, looking at her daughter. "You saw Cathy at the end, didn't you? And I'm older than she is. Was."

Now that Gail had her mother here, standing right in front of her, the words all left her head. She had no idea what to say to this woman. Where did she even begin?

Abigail smiled again, but it was a twisted smile. "Here, let me help you. If you're anything like your father, this'll help move things along." She crossed over to an antique cabinet and opened the door, taking out a bottle of whiskey. She brought it back to the table, pouring some in all three glasses. Then she handed one to Cas. "I don't know if you partake," Abigail said to him, "but you look as if you could use it." Then she handed one to Gail. "I imagine that, despite being an Angel, and God's wife, you like to take a drink now and then," her mother said with a note of slyness in her voice. "If you're like me, you don't usually take it like this, but I have no mix in the house at the moment."

Cas waved his hand and filled the remainder of the ladies' glasses with ginger ale. Abigail raised an eyebrow to him. "A gentleman," she remarked. "Just like Vincent used to be, when we first started seeing each other. To gentlemen," she added, raising her glass in a toast. She and Gail drank, and then Cas gave a half-shrug and downed his straight shot, trying not to make a face. What the hell. If he was going to stand here in this woman's home and tell her off, he might as well accept her hospitality first.

"Sit down," Abigail said, gesturing to the couch. "I know you like to sit together, so you two sit there." As they did, she moved a chair closer to Gail's end, and sat down on it. She was examining Gail's face now, and it was unnerving her daughter. Gail took a long drink from her glass, then set it down on the coffee table.

"You have your father's colouring," Abigail told her. "Dark. My side of the family was always very fair. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Only about a million," Gail replied. "Was that you at the hospital, when I had my tonsils out?"

"Yes," Abigail said. "I was forbidden from coming to see you, but I could feel your illness, calling out to me. I usually have to touch someone to pick up on their pain, but because you're my daughter, in this case it made no difference."

"What do you mean, you were 'forbidden'?" Cas said sharply.

Abigail gave him a baleful look. "What do you suppose I mean? Vincent forbade me. I was a brood mare to him, plain and simple. Once I had borne the child, I was to have nothing further to do with it."

"It? IT?" Cas raged. He was apoplectic now. "HER name is Gail, and she is sitting right here! She is a real person, with real feelings!"

Abigail shrugged. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. You're a man."

"Well, I"M not," Gail seethed. "Therefore, maybe you can explain it to me. Or, better still, explain to me why you got pregnant in the first place. It's pretty clear to me that you didn't want me."

"You don't know what he was like," Abigail said, looking past the couple, off into the distance. A smile came to her lips. "He was so handsome. So charming. We went for long walks, holding hands. Just like the two of you. He took me for candlelit dinners. We sat on that couch and kissed for hours." Gail looked down, with an almost comical look of distaste.

"He was so good in bed," Abigail continued dreamily. "We spent the better part of a week having sex, in every possible position." Gail had been taking another drink, just to wash the bad taste out of her mouth, and she nearly spit it out. Yikes. That was not the kind of stuff you wanted to hear your mother say, no matter how old you were.

"And at the end of that week, I had you in my belly," Abigail said, focusing back on Gail. "He was never even decent to me after that. He said I was fat and ugly. And he was right. Then I got the stretch marks. Here: want to see?" She stood suddenly and lifted her top, pulling her pants down with the other hand. "Look at what having you did to me. No wonder he didn't want me anymore."

Gail's mouth fell open. The woman was batshit crazy. Who DID something like that? She looked at Cas helplessly.

Abigail sat back down and picked up her drink, as if they had just been sitting here chatting pleasantly this whole time. "I came to see you at the house when you were small, before your operation," she said to Gail. "I told that Christina woman I was from the Welcome Wagon, or something. No, wait. Maybe I said I was from the church. I don't remember any more. He never found out."

"Why?" Gail said, thoroughly bewildered.

Abigail stared at her. "You know what? I have no idea. Curiosity, I suppose." Maybe she'd better not say that she had seriously considered killing both Gail and Christina with that cake knife, though. Her daughter and son-in-law probably wouldn't understand that, either. Besides, Castiel was looking at her sharply again, as if he already knew. Abigail guessed this must be what people felt like when she did it to them, and she smiled at the thought.

"What is WRONG with you?" Cas said to Abigail in his quiet voice. "Are you mentally ill, or are you just the most callous person that I have ever had the misfortune to meet?"

Abigail glared at him defiantly. "As I believe I've said, I wouldn't expect YOU to understand. Everything that has gone wrong in my life, every ill that has befallen me, started when I got pregnant. If that had never happened, Vincent and I would have had a good life together. He loved me."

Gail laughed harshly. "Is that what he told you? This is unbelievable! You're nuts, lady! You know, I had these stupid, ridiculous fantasies of finally finding you and knocking on your door, and you would open it and smile, because you were happy to see me. You would give me a hug, and tell me that you were sorry you couldn't be there for me when I was growing up, but you were here now, and you could be my mother, if I needed you to be. Maybe we would even go into the kitchen and you would show me how to bake cookies, or something lame like that. Maybe I could tell you all about how happy I am with Cas, and about my accomplishments in Heaven, and you would smile and say how proud you were of me! Maybe you would even say you loved me. How stupid am I?" She started to cry, and the tears were hot, bitter ones. "I don't know who's more delusional, you or me," she continued, looking at Abigail angrily. "I guess it's pretty obvious I really am your daughter. I'm as crazy as you are."

Cas's heart broke for his wife. He pulled her to him for a hug. She laid her head on his shoulder, shedding her tears. Cas glared lasers at Abigail, who sat looking at them dispassionately. Then, incredibly, the woman picked up her drink and had another sip, calmly waiting for her daughter to collect herself.

After a moment, Gail did. Cas waved his hand and conjured up a handkerchief for her. As she took it and dabbed her eyes with it, Cas looked furiously at Abigail. "Nothing that happened to you is Gail's fault," he said, tight-lipped. "Nothing!" He was absolutely livid now. It was taking every ounce of self-control that Cas had not to smite this woman right out of existence. "Gail did not ask to be born to such incredibly horrible people. How DARE you blame her for YOUR shortcomings? I am astounded that such a wonderful, loving, tender-hearted woman came from such pieces of garbage."

"Where do you get off talking to me like that?" Abigail said indignantly.

"Are you really that blind?" Cas shouted. He had to let go of Gail and stand from the couch now, because he was so filled with rage. "Your child sits there, crying, and not only do you not care, but you have the unmitigated gall to blame her for your sad, pathetic existence!? You abandoned her once when she was a child, and again now, when she came into your house, begging for a kind word from you! One kind word, one tiny scrap of affection!"

"Cas, forget it," Gail said miserably, but he said, "I cannot! To be abandoned like that, shut out, just when you needed to be loved the most?"

"She went to a good family," Abigail protested. "She wanted for nothing."

"Is that what you think?" Cas said scornfully. "Sometimes, people hunger for more than bread. Feeling alone, abandoned, rejected? Needing affection desperately? That, too, is poverty."

"Oh, cry me a river," Abigail said, rolling her eyes. "Nice speech. I gave up on needing love a long time ago, and if my daughter has any sense, she will, too. The best thing the two of you could do for yourselves is to stay apart. I wish I'd used birth control."

Gail suddenly remembered something. She was remembering when Death had come to her and Cas's house for dinner, when they had been looking to ask him to let them return Linda back to Heaven. "Someone told me recently that you wished me not to be," she said to Abigail in a hushed tone. "Is that true?"

Cas looked at his wife. That was right; he remembered that, too. It seemed obvious to him now that Abigail would have done so. Had she entered into some kind of unholy covenant, perhaps? That could explain a lot.

But Abigail was shaking her head. "No. At the time, I thought that having you would be a good thing. Vincent said that an offspring with both my psychic and healing powers was something that he wanted very much. No, I never wished you not to be." As Cas and Gail looked at each other, wondering why Death would have said that, Abigail added, "But make no mistake, that doesn't mean that I don't regret having you. Not a day goes by that I don't wonder how my life would have been different if I had not." She grabbed her youth shake from the coffee table. "But even though my life was ruined by having you, Vincent still keeps me young. Maybe one day he'll forgive me, and come back to me." She held the glass out, toasting Gail. "Maybe he's keeping me around so that I can finish what I started. I should have taken that knife to you in the playpen that day. I thought about it, you know. Maybe Vincent wants me to wait until you don't have your husband around for protection. You want me to reject you, don't you, Castiel? I can feel it coming off of you, in waves. Fine, then. I reject you. Who wants you around, anyway? Gail is Vincent's daughter, not your wife. Here's to a long, long life. For us."

But as Abigail raised the glass to her lips, Cas waved his hand, and the glass went flying to the opposite end of the room, smashing to bits. Abigail sprang to her feet, alarmed. She had had only half of the drink, and the pitcher was empty. Would it be enough?

"The only reason you're still alive right now is because I love my wife, and so I cannot bring myself to raise my hand against her mother," Castiel said through gritted teeth, "however poor of an excuse that mother might be." He looked at Gail. "The files we were seeking are in the basement. I have just sent them to the bunker's storage room, with an instruction to Bobby to tell Sam and Dean. We will concern ourselves with them at a later time. Is there anything else you wish to do here?"

"No, Cas," she said, moving forward to take his hand. "That just about covers it." She looked at Abigail. "Let's see how much he loves you, now. Oh, and if by some miracle he comes, tell him we'll be seeing him, real soon."

Then the two Angels winked themselves out of Abigail's house, without another word.

Vincent was pleased with the numbers so far. He had popped over to the receiving area, where the flunkies he had hired were checking names off the list and putting the special bracelets on each child, and adult, who arrived. The bracelet on the left wrist was to designate which wing they should be placed into. That was one thing Cathy had shown him that was halfway useful. Her files had been colour-coded, sorted by abilities. He had decided to institute the same system for the bracelets, the ones that sorted his children into their living quarters. Black for psychic abilities, red for teleportation, green for telekinetics.

He was happy to see that there were all kinds of age groups coming in, and both sexes. As they entered, his men checked them against the master list that Vincent had provided, affixing the placement bracelets to their left wrists and the bracelets with the explosives to their right. They all had a bit of a glazed look as they came in, an effect of the summoning spell that he had cast. The younger they were, the more compliant they were, as a rule. After they were checked in and outfitted, they would be funneled through to the testing facility. There, he would separate the pretenders from the contenders. If they were all his kids, they would all have the goods, but they would also have to prove to him that there was more to them than just genetics. Vincent was looking for intangible qualities, as well. Once the testing was complete, he would have to spend some time with each prospect individually, to see if they had the type of quality he was looking for.

Here was Eric now; Rob's twin brother. He was looking at the intake men suspiciously, but he put his arms out obediently for the bracelets to be affixed. He saw Vincent standing there, smiling, and Eric's forehead wrinkled. What the hell was he doing here? One minute, he had been running drugs as usual, and the next, he was here, answering the call.

"You are very talented, and so is the rest of your family," Vincent said to Eric, and before the young man had the chance to ask any questions, he was shuffled off to the Red Wing. "Is his brother here yet?" Vincent asked the flunky with the clipboard. "No, not yet," the man replied. Vincent let out a short breath of frustration, but in a perverse way, he was also glad. So, his son Rob was being resistant. Good. Great. That just meant that the boy was strong.

Vincent went to his quarters and lit the candles, sitting cross-legged on the bed. He closed his eyes, and after a few minutes, he started to levitate. "Rob," he said silkily. "I know you've been hearing my call all day, and I know you've been resisting it. Good for you, son. Good for you. But you know that if you don't show up here within the next 24 hours, I'll have to come to your house, right? Ask your dad how efficient I am when it comes to splattering people all over the walls. I know he didn't actually see me kill his parents, but you and I both know I did that. Oh, and don't even think about calling any Angels for help. Soon, your sister Gail is going to be here with us, and she's going to be sitting at my right hand. Your Uncle Cas is going to be so devastated by her rejection of Heaven, and of him, that he'll be in no shape to help you or your family. Haven't you always known that you didn't belong, where you are? That's because you don't. You belong here, with me. You, and Gail. Frank and Cas aren't your family. I am. Come to me, Rob."

Rob put his hand to his head, grimacing.

"What's the matter?" Jody asked her son, putting the candle in Angela's birthday cake. "Have you got a headache?"

"Yeah," he said, almost gratefully. "I think I need to go upstairs and take a pill."

"OK, but hurry back," Jody said. "I know she's just a baby and she won't know the difference, but I want us all to be together when we sing Happy Birthday to Angela. And then, I'll need you to help me put out the candy for the trick-or-treaters."

"Sure thing, Mom," Rob said, but he was clutching his head now, feeling nauseous. Jody looked at him with concern. She hoped he wasn't developing migraines. She'd heard about those, and she'd heard that they were a bitch.

Rob hurried upstairs, but instead of going to the medicine cabinet, he went to his room and closed the door softly. He looked around wildly. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't let anything happen to his family. He knew where the compound was. He'd been seeing it in his head all day. But Rob didn't believe that Vincent was stronger than his Uncle Cas, or even his Aunt Gail. Fine, then. Rob would show up at the stupid place, to save his mortal family. But he pitied Vincent when Cas showed up. Boy, would he be sorry, then.

Rob threw some things into a duffel bag and quietly let himself out of the house.

Cas and Gail were sitting holding hands in a bar in Virginia. Somewhat inexplicably, he had winked them an entire state away from Abigail. The geographical distance didn't matter, of course. But still, it made him feel better, somehow.

He brought her a glass of wine to drink, simply because he didn't know what else to do at this point. She had sat there, stunned, as he brought it to her. He sat beside her and looked at her with concern. But she continued to just sit there, looking off into space. Not that he could blame her. That had been one of the most shocking and disgusting displays he had ever witnessed.

Cas was frantic now. What could he do for her? Should he ask Frank to come? No, Frank was celebrating his own daughter's birthday with his family right now. Sam and Dean? Cas sent out The Eye, but the Winchesters were currently staking out a vampires' nest.

A couple of minutes later, Liz walked into the bar and sat across from the couple. "Sorry it took me so long," she said. "I had to ditch Gabriel. You'd better give him a job soon, Cas. He's got way too much time on his hands."

Cas smiled faintly. "I'll take that under advisement, Liz. But my concern right now is Gail. She's feeling pretty depressed. I was hoping you could help me cheer her up."

Liz looked at her friend. "What's the matter?" she asked Gail.

Gail took a sip of her wine, playing with the coaster. "I don't know why you called Liz, Cas. What's she going to be able to do?"

"She's your best friend in Heaven," Cas replied. "I just thought that she might be able to help me to convince you that there is nothing wrong with you."

"What's he talking about?" Liz asked Gail, as Cas gestured to the server to bring Liz a glass of wine. "What's supposedly wrong with you?"

Gail hesitantly explained to her Angel friend what had happened with her mother. Liz took a couple of sips of her glass of wine, making a face. But, she'd never been able to have a drink with her best friend in life, because Gail had been lost to her at a very young age. So Liz raised her glass to Gail now, and her friend followed suit, perhaps thinking about the same thing.

"Well, she's just out of her mind. That's all there is to that," Liz stated after Gail had finished her account, with the occasional interjection from Cas.

"Thank you," Gail said, but she was holding a hand to her head now.

"What's going on, my love? Are you all right?" Cas asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Cas," Gail lied. "My head just feels...I don't know...tight. I'm going to the washroom, to wash my face. I'll be right back."

She kissed him on the cheek and slid out of the booth, walking to the back of the bar where the restrooms were.

"I'm surprised you didn't smite the crap out of Abigail," Liz said to Cas, with disarming bluntness.

He gave her a half-smile. "I came very close to doing just that," he confessed. "But she is my wife's mother, and as abhorrent as she is, if I hope to remarry Gail, I didn't think that smiting my mother-in-law was an advisable course of action."

Liz giggled. "I'm so happy Gail found you, Cas. You're a terrific guy. You know, I came to this bar with my husband and a friend of mine, once."

"Really?" Cas said with interest. "Isn't that a coincidence."

"I'll say," Liz replied, sighing as she took a sip of her wine. "Gerald was really drunk that night. We were here with a female co-worker of mine. I guess she wasn't really a friend; just somebody that I was hoping could BE a friend. I never really had any friends after I lost touch with Gail. Anyway, Gerry started this really strange conversation with her that night, something about some weird sex stuff. Let's just leave it at that. She was looking at him, trying to figure out why he would bring that up, but he just kept talking about it, even though I tried to get him to change the subject. Finally, I told him that was enough. Nobody wanted to hear what he was talking about. He stormed out of here then, and after an awkward silence, my co-worker left, too. So I sat here, all alone, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next. I remember thinking about Gail then, wishing she'd been there with me. We would have ordered another drink and cursed my husband out, and then gotten in the car and driven away, laughing about what a drunken loser he was." Liz paused, then continued, "You know, Gail always seemed to have an ideal upbringing, Cas. It hurts my heart that I didn't have any idea about what she might have actually been going through. But if it makes you feel any better, every time I was at her house when we were kids, it looked like a pretty good place to grow up." But she was thinking about that now, even as she was saying it. Yes, the house had been nice and clean, and there had always been plenty of food to eat. But now that Liz thought about it, really thought about it, hadn't Christina shown a lot more affection towards Frank than she had towards Gail? Whenever Gail had urged Liz to come over after school, hadn't her friend noticed a difference in the way the woman had treated the two kids? Now, Liz wondered if Gail had begged her to come after school just because her friend had needed someone to talk to.

"I'll go and talk to her," Liz told Cas now. "She's probably just hiding in the washroom because she's been crying. I'll get her to come out."

"Thank you for being such a wonderful friend to her, Liz," Cas said fervently.

Liz eased out from her seat in the booth. "There's no need to thank me, Cas. I love her, too. Gail is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. When we were in school together, she was one of the few kids who would even have anything to do with me. I was the daughter of immigrant parents, who barely spoke English. My mother sewed my clothes for me, because we had spent all our money getting to America. But the other kids made fun of me, because of that. Not Gail, though. She didn't care how I looked, or how I dressed. She saw me for who I was. Nobody else cared, Cas, but she did. I'll tell you the truth: if Gail had been in my life at that time, I probably never would have married Gerry in the first place. But, don't worry, I'm not blaming her, or anything crazy like that. Not like her mother. I can't even believe that. All I'm saying is that I wish we could have been friends all this time. It wasn't fair, what happened to her, Cas. Or to Frank, either. You were thanking me for being such a good friend to Gail? I should be thanking you. You should see the way she lights up when she talks about you. She loves you so much."

Cas was touched. What a beautiful thing to say. "Thank you, Liz. Thank you for telling me that. You don't know how much that means to me." And it was true. Now that the second step of the annulment had been completed, Cas was anxious to get on with things. Thankfully, the next step was easily accomplished. And it would give Gail a chance to regroup emotionally, after the disastrous visit with her birth mother.

"I'll go talk to her, and we'll be right back," Liz told Cas. She slid all the way out of the booth.

"Thank you, Liz," Cas said again. He sat there, smiling. His wife was so sweet, and so brave. He didn't care about her lineage. She had risen above those people, to become one of the finest Angels that Heaven had ever seen. Gail was so much more than her birth parents. So much better. Which just made her all the more impressive to Castiel. When he considered everything she'd had to overcome, Gail's evolution had been nothing short of remarkable.

Cas sat there for a few minutes, thinking warm and loving thoughts about his wife. But when Liz came back from the bathroom, she was alone.

"I'm sorry, Cas - " she started to say, even as he frowned. "Where's Gail?" Cas asked her friend.

"She's gone," Liz said, dazed.

Vincent had pulled out all the stops for this last one. He had known that she would be difficult to summon, and even harder to contain. That was why he had made sure to take a sample of her blood, and of Cas's hair, when they had had their little confrontation in Quinn's seance room.

"Come to me, my daughter," he intoned. "Your brothers and sisters are already here. Your REAL brothers and sisters. Not the Angels. That bunch of stuck-up, tight-ass..." Vincent took a deep breath. "Look, I know you're not going to fall for any of my bullshit. Why would you? You're my daughter, and you're smart. And, frankly, I don't think I would be able to respect you if you did, anyway. So, I guess all I can say is: Veni ad me. Come to me, my daughter. Veni ad me."

Gail was in the washroom of the bar, splashing water on her face. "Nope," she said mildly. "As my very good friend Dean would say, 'not gonna happen'." As if it was no big deal, being summoned by a very powerful supernatural entity.

"Come to me," Vincent said again, pouring her blood into the bowl and waving his hands over it.

Gail ignored the tickling in her head, looking for paper towels now. Vincent was grinning. He added Castiel's hair to Gail's blood and waved his hands over the bowl, reciting another incantation.

"How about now?" Vincent asked his daughter.

Gail reeled, as if she was drunk. She staggered over to the sink, putting her hands on either side of it. "No. That's just a trick," she said out loud. Luckily, she was the only one in the bathroom. "Cas is outside, with Liz."

"Why don't you open the door, then, and see?" Vincent taunted her.

She strode over to the washroom door and yanked it open. The bar was empty, devoid of people. "Where are they?" Gail demanded.

"Liz is back in Heaven, where she belongs," Vincent's voice said in Gail's ear. "And Castiel is already in my compound, waiting here for you."

"Yeah. Right," Gail said derisively.

Vincent smiled. It pleased him that she was being the toughest sell of all. Good girl. He took a small vial out of his inside pocket now, and he poured the few drops of Paco Rabanne into the bowl.

"I wouldn't expect you to just take my word for it," Vincent said charmingly. "But, if you'll take a deep breath, you'll see that I'm right."

Gail's head swam. That was Cas's cologne, the one he always wore for her. But, he and Liz were in the bar, waiting for her. She opened the door once more. No one.

"Boy, are you stubborn," Vincent said affably. He wasn't angry. He knew she would come, now. He could see it in her eyes. Wherever she thought her Sainted husband was, would be where she would go.

Vincent leaned over the bowl now, cutting his own wrist to seal the spell. He let a few drops of his own blood fall into the bowl. Hopefully the little bitch would respond now, because this was the last arrow in his quiver. Vincent didn't shed his own blood for just anyone.

But he was rewarded a moment later, when Gail's head turned towards the ceiling of the restroom. "I will come to you, father," she said calmly. Then she winked herself out of the bathroom.

"My daughter! Welcome!" Vincent greeted Gail effusively at the entrance to the compound. "You will sit at my right hand, and be my Princess."

"Where's Cas?" she demanded.

"My apologies. I'll take you to him right away," Vincent said, extending his hand to her.

Gail looked at him with disdain. "I'm not here to do daddy-daughter crap," she said sarcastically. "I'm only here for Cas. Take me to him."

Vincent smiled. "You're quite right. I guess your mother and I kind of bungled up that whole parenting thing, didn't we? I apologize for that. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to Castiel right away."

But Gail was trying to send Cas a message on Angel Radio now, and she was unable to do it. Vincent saw her look of consternation. "Oh, I suppose I should have told you," he said off-handedly. "The compound is heavily warded. We can't have just anybody waltzing in here, can we? All right, I guess you caught me. Castiel isn't actually here. But don't feel too badly. You really do have family here. Rob is here in one wing, and his twin brother Eric is in another. They don't know about each other's existence, but we could introduce them, if you'd like. I have all kinds of subjects here, but none of them can hold a candle to you. You will be my right hand. And don't worry about the sigils. They're only there to prevent you from communicating with your Exalted husband, for the time being. But I can tell you this much: I know he's God, and my piddly little sigils won't prevent him from storming in here. Fine. If the two of you want to get it on in the suite I'm taking you to, great. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a hypocrite. I know how much you enjoy sex. You're my daughter, aren't you? Fine with me. But the instant you get righteous on me, I'll take this right here, and I'll blow all these kids to Kingdom Come." He pulled a control panel out of his pocket, showing it to her. "See this?" he said, nudging her. "This is a control panel for the bracelets that all of my kids here are wearing. All I would have to do is press this middle button here, and they all blow up. How would you like to have that on your conscience? Because, unfortunately, I know you have one. I'm not sure where the hell you would have gotten that from. It wouldn't have been from your mother, that's for sure. She was good to go, but she was as crazy as...Anyway, all I had to do was smile at her and she was pulling down her pants for me. At least you had the decency to wait until you were married. Well, except for Las Vegas, of course. But, hey, what happens there stays there, am I right?" He winked grotesquely at her.

Gail was thinking furiously now. OK, so she'd fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. She had really believed for a moment that Vincent had somehow spirited Cas away, and that was the only reason why she'd come. But Vincent had sigils painted on the walls, so Gail couldn't escape. So...what? She wasn't too worried at the moment. She could bide her time, until she figured out what to do. "My private life is none of your business," she told him.

"You're quite right, of course," he said, giving her a slight bow. "If I was a decent human being, or even any sort of a human being, I wouldn't bring such things up. But, unfortunately for you, I have no filters, as I believe the expression goes. So tell me, my daughter, how is he? Is he as good as he looks?"

Gail glared at him balefully. "You're kidding, of course."

Vincent paused a moment, and then he smiled. "Yes, of course I'm kidding. I would never presume to ask you how God was in the sack. Not unless you felt like you wanted to tell me, of course."

There was a silence between them, and then Vincent smiled wolfishly. "Okie-dokie," he said. "I get it. You just got here. You have to get acclimated. But, even though hubby isn't actually here, your brother Rob really is, and he's really got a twin brother, whose name is Eric. They don't know about each other. But they're both here, and they've both got bracelets on their wrists that they can't remove. So, if you're thinking about playing the heroine - BOOM!" He gestured to the plastic control panel he held in his hand.

Dammit! Gail thought. Okay. OK. She would have to play this one a little more carefully, then.

Vincent showed her to the wing where her suite was. "You get deluxe accommodations, because you're the most powerful one in my stable," he told her, opening the door with a keycard. "But, make no mistake. The only reason you are here is because of the things that you can do for me. If I catch you doing anything that is contrary to what I want you to do, I won't hesitate to press this button, and blow up those kids. Hey, I can always make more," he said cheerfully.

Gail looked up at him. She wished he was bluffing, but she got the impression that he wasn't. They stopped in front of a door. "This is your suite," Vincent said matter-of-factly. "Go on in there, and relax. I know it'll be really hard for you not to be able to communicate with your husband right now, but you understand the carrot and stick method, I'm sure. Quid pro quo. Once you do something for me, I'll let you contact Castiel, and let him know that both you and Rob are all right. Not to mention Rob's twin brother, and all the other children."

Gail frowned. She got the message. "What's going on, here?" she asked her father. "What's the endgame?"

He grinned. "The most powerful kids will become my army, when I find the Book of the Dead," he told her. "The most powerful, and also, the most attractive."

She stopped walking. "Pardon?"

Vincent continued to grin. "Don't worry; we're grading on a curve. And, the fact that a stone-cold fox like Castiel finds you attractive, or at least, finds you bed-worthy, only weighs in your favour. Besides, you're an Angel. I'm sure you have some pretty awesome powers to make up for your rather plain appearance."

Gail stared at him, astonished. She had just been at Abigail's house, and she had been basically told there that she should never have been born in the first place. And now, she was standing with her father, as repugnant an individual as he was, and he seemed to be telling her that she wasn't even good-looking enough to make his disgusting roster of...whatever this was? Great. She would probably have to get some self-esteem counselling, after all this was over.

Vincent gestured to the door in front of him again. "Go on inside," he repeated. "You'll find it has every comfort. Well, except for food and drink. I know you Angels don't really do that kind of thing. But if there's anything you want, you only need to push the big red button. I want you to be comfortable here."

"I want my husband," Gail said petulantly.

"Sorry. No can do," Vincent said, shrugging. "If I was sure that he would behave himself and get with the program, then, yeah. You are my daughter, after all, so I know you'll love good sex as much as I do. But, sorry. I can't take that chance. Your suite is encased in sigils, of course, but that husband of yours is another matter. You shouldn't have married so high above your station. Oh, and before I forget, how is Abigail? Is she still batcrap crazy? Now you can see why I only hit that once, to use the vernacular. Just enough to knock her up with you. Yeah, I keep up with modern slang, as you can see, even though I'm much, much older than you might think." He stopped talking for a moment, gesturing to the door of the suite once again. "Sorry, I seem to be rambling," he told Gail. "Why don't you go inside, and have a rest? No phones, and no computer, either. But there's a TV, and there are some books, because I know you like those. Then we'll talk in the morning. Okay?"

"OK," Gail responded.

Vincent looked at her suspiciously. "That's it? No argument?"

Crap, Gail thought. If she was going to pull this off, she needed to come across as believable. "Look, there's no point in arguing with you, is there?" she said to her father. "You obviously think you're the be-all, and end-all. So, no, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just going to sneak around behind your back, and try to undermine you every time you turn around. Okie-doke?"

Vincent grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow, then," Gail said sassily, letting herself into the suite. She closed the door firmly behind her. After a moment, she looked around the place, as discreetly as she could. Yep. Security cameras in the corners. She crossed over to the couch and sat down on it, thinking. Okay; how was she going to deal with this? She'd been in tough situations before. Think. Think. What did she know? There were a bunch of "kids" here, although a number of them could be adults too, like she was. Vincent had said that Rob was among them, and that they all had bracelets on them that could explode, if he pressed a button. Was he telling the truth? It didn't matter. For the time being, Gail had to assume that he was.

So, what now?

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Cas said to Liz, alarmed.

"She's not here, Cas," Liz repeated. She was standing beside their booth, fidgeting anxiously. "Would she have gone back to...back home?" she asked him, glancing around at the people seated nearby.

Cas frowned in concentration. No, Gail wouldn't have just left them behind like that, without a word. He knew that she was depressed, but she would have just told him that she wanted to go, and he would have taken her home immediately. He would have taken her anywhere she wanted to go.

This was starting to feel all too familiar. Cas called to Gail on Angel Radio, and then he called out to her again, so loudly and desperately that Liz clapped her hands over her ears and winced.

"I'm sorry, Liz," Cas said, his heart hammering away in his chest. "Something's happened to her. I'm sure of it. This feels like the time that Lucifer abducted her from our house. She just suddenly disappeared, and I had no idea where she was."

"Lucifer abducted her?!" Liz exclaimed, shocked. Gail had never mentioned that. The people in the booth next to theirs looked up sharply, and Liz looked at Cas sheepishly.

Cas threw some money on the table. "We'd better talk somewhere more private. Are you sure you checked everywhere in that washroom, Liz?"

Despite how worried she was starting to be about Gail, Liz smiled. "How big do you think a ladies' washroom is, Cas?"

"I have no idea," he told her earnestly. "I've never been in one."

"Well, they're not that big," Liz assured him. "I couldn't possibly have missed her, if that's what you're getting at."

Cas sighed. "All right, then. Let's go to our house in Kansas, just on the off chance she's there. Then, if not, we'll brainstorm." He slid out of the booth, steering Liz to the front door of the bar. They walked around the corner into the alleyway, and then disappeared.

Vincent was inspecting the testing facilities now, nodding his head in approval. His assistants had done their work very well. He had three, and each man was going to specialize in one area, because each man had a particular skill that would come in handy when it came to their interactions with the test subjects.

The human was going to deal with the psychics. He was a man with extensive experience in moulding other peoples' minds, and he was highly motivated to help Vincent achieve his goals.

The Angel was going to test the teleporters. He had been a doctor in life, so he had the skill of being able to medicate the subjects, if they got too carried away. Plus, he understood the mechanics of teleportation, as a being who was capable of doing it, himself.

And the third tester, the one who was going to work with the telekinetics? He brought some very interesting qualities to the table, not the least of which was his intimate knowledge of the man who had definitely just become Vincent's most fearsome and formidable enemy.

"We'll get started in the morning," Vincent told this man now.

"Good," the assistant said, nodding. "Great. Is she here yet?"

Vincent grinned. "Yeah, she's here. But we're going to keep the two of you apart, until the right time comes. We wouldn't want to ruin the big reveal, would we?"

"No, we certainly wouldn't," the tester said, smiling widely. He couldn't wait.

Cas had sent out The Eye, and he had tried Angel Radio and their private frequency countless times. He had finally broken down and called their family and friends, but he was saving Frank for last. He honestly didn't think Gail had gone there, and Cas was reluctant to panic her brother. Besides, he knew that they were celebrating Angela's first birthday, and he really didn't want to spoil their party if it could be helped.

Cas had sent Liz back to Heaven. He wanted to be left alone, to think. Where could Gail be? He hadn't been able to find her anywhere. Had Raguel taken her? Crowley? Vincent?

Vincent. Oh, Heavenly Father. Vincent had said that he was going to call Gail to him, and that she was going to come. Gail had told Cas that that was what the man had said, at Quinn's. Had he been able to cast some kind of spell on her, to force her to come to wherever he was? But where would that BE, exactly?

Then Cas's cell phone rang, and he dove for it.

"Cas, we need your help," Frank said. "Rob's gone missing."

Eric had tried teleporting out of his room, of course, but he couldn't do it. There were some weird symbol-like things painted on the walls of his room. Maybe they had something to do with it.

The guy who'd shown Eric to his room had told him that a doctor was going to test him in the morning. What for? Eric had asked, somewhat nonsensically. The man had laughed, then shoved him into the room and locked the door.

Eric tried to take the heavy bracelet off of his right wrist, but he couldn't do that, either. Dammit! What the hell had he gotten himself into now?

Rob was pacing the floor of his mini-suite. Vincent had given the more deluxe accommodations to his most promising prospects. There were no symbols painted on his walls, because Rob could be as psychic as he wanted, in Vincent's view. He had no special powers aside from that, so he wouldn't be able to escape.

The young man knew a great deal already. He knew that the man who was going to perform the testing on the psychics was a horrible man, who had done horrible things, and was planning to do even worse ones, once they were finished here. Rob knew that the bracelet which was affixed to his right wrist was loaded with explosives. And he knew that his Aunt Gail was here somewhere too, in her own suite. How had Vincent accomplished THAT? It was too bad that she didn't have her psychic powers any more. Then Rob could just communicate with her that way. At least, he thought he could. He'd never actually tried that before.

But then it occurred to Rob that he did know somebody he could try that with. He had looked around and seen the security cameras, so he flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, pretending to be interested in what was on.

And then he sent out the call.

Ricky's room had the symbols all over it too, which didn't surprise him one bit. Like that Stephen King book, Ricky was a fire-starter. But unlike the kid in the book, Ricky was pushing fifty now, and he had never been able to control his particular talent. Never. Sure, once in a while he could marshal all his forces of concentration and produce a nice fire in a fireplace if he really wanted to. But most of the fires he had started throughout his life had been genuine, honest-to-God accidents.

He'd answered the call just like the others had, but mainly, he had just come here out of boredom, and loneliness. There were millions of people in Hong Kong, but that meant nothing to Ricky. He'd never been married, or had kids. There was just something about him that was off-putting to women. It hadn't helped that his mother had been a real oddball, either. When Ricky was growing up and would try to invite some schoolmates over, his mom would be there, with the live chickens and the meat cleaver, wearing her beads and spouting her mumbo-jumbo. A Chinese woman wearing a rosary and using chicken blood for rituals in the kitchen where they ate. You couldn't make stuff like that up. Word soon spread that Ricky's mother thought she was some kind of a voodoo lady, or something. Then, bingo-bongo. No friends for Ricky. He used to yell at his mother and tell her to quit it. What was she trying to prove? She would shake her chickens at him and say he didn't understand. If she kept up with the rituals, maybe Ricky's father would come back.

Papa Legba had followed her home from the night market years ago, asking her questions about her family, and her culture. He seemed to like what he'd heard, because he had come over the next night with a special tea that he said they should try. She had prepared the tea for them both, they drank it, and then just as Vincent had started to kiss her, the hallucinations had taken over. As Vincent took her clothes off, his head became the head of a lion. She stroked his mane, and then he became a snake, wrapping himself around her body.

"What do you want your son to be?" he had whispered silkily into her ear as he entered her.

"A dragon," she'd said dreamily.

"Then that's what he'll be," Vincent said, and for an instant, she saw his real face, and she was afraid. "What's the matter?" he asked her irritably. "You invite a strange man into your home, let him drug you and knock you up, but he can't relax enough to show you his true face? You women are all alike. None of you can make up your minds about what you really want. So you want your kid to be a dragon, do you? Fine. See how much you enjoy his fire."

Then he had finished, and then he was gone. Ricky's mother had fallen into a deep sleep after that, and when she woke, it was like nothing had ever happened. But nearly nine months later, she'd had her son. He was a perfectly normal little Chinese baby, just like the millions of others. She had relocated to Hong Kong for the pregnancy because she had no husband, and to be a single mother back then in her village and in her culture was to bring shame upon your family.

She named the baby Ji Huo, which, loosely translated, meant "lucky fire". But as he'd grown up and gone to school, he had started calling himself "Ricky". All the kids had English names, he'd told his mom, and she had shrugged. If that was what he wanted. It was easier just to appease her son. If he got agitated, sometimes fires would spontaneously erupt around the house.

His mother was dead now, of course. That had been a long time ago. Ricky glanced at the bracelet on his right wrist, but then he looked quickly away again. He'd better not think about the fact that these people, whoever they were, had attached explosives to the arm of a man whose mind could produce fire. He sure hoped that whoever had painted those symbols on the walls knew what they were doing. He recognized a few of them. They reminded him of Chinese writing, in a way. His mother used to trace symbols like that in blood on the makeshift altar she had set up in their kitchen. Did this have anything to do with his father? Ricky had asked his mother countless questions about the man when he was growing up, but he had received only vague, unsatisfying answers.

Oh, well. He supposed he would find out in due time. Ricky checked the little kitchen here, and was pleased to see that it was well-stocked. No live chickens, no blood, just good, American food. He would have something to eat, maybe watch a little TV, and then go to sleep. He was sort of looking forward to tomorrow. This could be the most interesting thing that had happened to him for a long time.

"If you give me something that belonged to the deceased, we can begin," Quinn said to her client.

"Oh, yes, I did bring something, too," Eunice said. "Now, where did I put it?" She reached down to the floor and started rummaging through her purse. That was, if you could call it a purse, Quinn thought. The bag was roughly the size of a small country.

Quinn waited patiently, while sighing inwardly. The things she had to put up with, just to make ends meet. Suddenly, she felt a tickle in her brain. A young male voice, calling her name, over and over.

"I'll be right with you, dear," Eunice said. She had the bag in her lap now.

"Take your time," Quinn said absently. Rob? she said in her head. Is that you?

Yeah, he said. Thank God you can hear me. And, speaking of which, we need you to call Cas. I've tried praying, but I don't know if he's picking me up.

What's going on, Rob? Quinn asked him. What's happening?

Rob told her as much as he knew about the situation, and Quinn gasped audibly. Eunice looked sharply at her. "I told you I would pay for the full - oh, here it is," the old woman said triumphantly. She pulled a dog collar out of her bag. "This was on my Rexie's neck when he passed. I was hoping we could contact him on the other side, and find out if he's all right."

"Rexie's a dog?" Quinn said incredulously. "You want to hold a seance for a dog?!"

"Well...yes," Eunice said, confused. "That's what you do, isn't it? Contact our dear, departed loved ones?"

"Get out," Quinn said through clenched teeth.

"I don't understand," Eunice said in a quavering voice, still holding the dog collar.

"Clearly!" Quinn shouted. "You want to know what Rexie has to say about the Afterlife? What pearls of wisdom he's got to impart? Well, listen up, because here it is: Woof, woof! That's what he's got to say! And that's all he'll ever have to say, because HE'S A DOG! Now, get out!"

Eunice scurried out of the house, and Quinn sighed, massaging her temples with both hands. Sorry about that, Rob, she said wearily. Now, how can I help?

Dean came out of the motel bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. Boy, that shower had felt good. The kills had gone pretty smoothly back at the nest, but he'd had blood all over himself, of course. It was funny how spoiled you could get, having an Angel who was also one of your best friends around, to just wave her hands and clean you up instantly.

"Hey, maybe we should call Cas and see how Gail's doing," Dean said to his brother, crossing over to his duffel bag to get some fresh clothes. "Maybe he could come and get us, and we could go over there for an hour or two. It sounded like she needed some cheering up when he called me. If we hadn't been closing in on those vamps, we could have gone there right then. But you know how he is: he'll just sit there looking all sad, until SHE feels like she has to cheer HIM up."

Sam smirked. Dean was right, there. Cas wasn't exactly expert at bringing someone out of the doldrums. "Yeah, OK," he said. "Put some clothes on, and then we'll give them a call."

Dean was rummaging through his bag now, taking out pieces of clothing individually and sniffing at them. As Sam looked on, bemused, Dean gave a pair of underwear a courtesy smell, and then another, and deemed them suitable. He picked up the jeans he'd been wearing at the Hunt and checked them for stains, then set them aside with the shorts he'd chosen.

"Dude, you've gotta be kidding with that," Sam said with a look of distaste on his face.

"What? They're fine," Dean pronounced. He took a couple of socks from the bag next and gave them a tentative sniff, and the horrified look on his face nearly made Sam snort the sip of beer he'd just taken out of his nose. As he swallowed hard, trying to collect himself, Sam waited to see what Dean would do next. Sure enough, after a moment's consideration, his brother returned the socks to the bag, then continued to root around in it.

"Dean," Sam said as patiently as he could. "You might want to keep your dirty clothes separate, and then you wouldn't have to go through that same disgusting process every time."

Dean looked up at him. "I only have one bag, Sammy."

"Yeah, but..." Sam got off his bed and moved across the room to his own neatly packed travel bag. After his shower, he had organized everything but his toiletries, because he knew that they would be returning home first thing in the morning. He opened the side zipper and showed Dean the plastic bag filled with his dirty clothes. "See? I already have my laundry separated, so I can just pop it in the washer when we get home. Not only that, but because it's in a side pocket, the clean clothes in the middle of the bag won't pick up the smell."

Dean eyed his brother balefully. "Sammy, you're gonna make some lucky woman one helluva wife, someday."

Sam sighed, rolling his eyes. Well, at least Dean was showered, now. They could give Cas and Gail a call, and see how she was doing. Cas had been terse and the timing had been off, but Sam could intuit that her long-awaited meeting with her birth mother hadn't exactly gone well. What the hell was it with all of them and parents? He tried hard to come up with one positive experience that any of them had had with their birth parents, and except for Frank growing up, he was hard pressed. And look how that had turned out, in the end.

As Dean dressed, Sam's cell phone rang. He went back over to the nightstand to answer it. Maybe Cas was beating them to it. But when he looked at the Call Display, he saw that it was Quinn. For a minute, he thought about just ignoring the call. He and Quinn still saw each other from time to time, but things had definitely cooled between them. Too many times when she touched him, Sam felt like she was "reading" him, and that made him feel uncomfortable. Ever since that one time when she had accused him of thinking of Gail at a particularly intimate moment, things had never been the same between them. Sam had vehemently denied it, of course, but she had stared at him without further comment, and then she'd gotten out of bed and gotten dressed. And even though they'd had a long talk and then made up subsequent to that event, Sam could feel that things just weren't the same. And there was that whole thing about Dean and Nicole, too. Sam wished that Quinn had never brought up that vision she'd had about his brother and his girlfriend. It had made things awkward between Quinn and Dean, with Sam right smack in the middle.

"Hi, Quinn," Sam said, answering his phone. "How are you?"

Dean paused for just a moment as he was buttoning up his shirt. Quinn? Frankly, he'd been wondering what, if anything, was happening between her and his brother now. They'd been really hot and heavy there for a while, and then, the temperature had plummeted. There had been that thing about Nicole, but even though that had kind of pissed Dean off at the time, he'd told Sam that he was over it. But Dean knew that Quinn and Sam had exchanged some words over Gail, too, and he suspected that was what was actually at the root of Sam and Quinn's estrangement. But there was no way that Dean wanted any part of that kind of discussion. No way, no how. He was staying out of it. Between Quinn, Sam, Gail, and Cas, that was a lose-lose-lose-lose proposition.

"What?!" Sam said sharply. "He said what?" He put his phone on Speaker, and put it on the nightstand.

"Rob said that he and Gail and a bunch of other people are in some kind of a compound being run by that Vincent man. They're all being held prisoner there, and he says they're all going to be tested there, according to their abilities," Quinn said in an agitated voice.

Dean rushed toward the phone. "OK, that doesn't even make any sense," he said, his forehead wrinkling. "It sounds like the plot of a bad movie. Why would Rob call YOU on the phone, and not one of us, for one thing?"

"Because he didn't call me on the phone, Dean," Quinn retorted. "He called me with his mind. He's got the gift, all right."

"But, if Gail's there, why couldn't she just teleport everyone out?" Sam puzzled.

"I don't know, Sam, but it could have something to do with the fact that everybody who came in had a bracelet attached to their wrists that's apparently loaded with explosives," Quinn replied, matter-of-factly. "Rob said he tried to get his off, but he can't."

"Where is this place?" Dean asked. He was already gathering up his stuff and throwing it in the duffel bag.

"That's the problem, Dean. Rob doesn't know," Quinn answered him.

"What do you mean, he doesn't know?" Dean said angrily. "Didn't you say he went there?"

Quinn frowned. "I know, Dean. I said the same thing. But he said he doesn't know. He said he's been praying to Cas, but he thought you guys had better call him, in case he can't hear Rob's prayers."

The brothers exchanged glances. Damn right, they'd better call Cas.

"Oh, and one more thing," Quinn added quickly. "Rob expressed concern about his family. Apparently, Vincent threatened to kill them all, if they interfered."

"Don't worry about that," Sam said to her. "We'll take it from here. Thanks for calling, Quinn, and please let us know if you hear anything else."

"I will, Sam," she said softly. "You know I will. Regardless of any problems you and I might have had, you know that I'll do whatever I can to help all of you."

Sam thanked her again, and then he hung up the phone, looking at Dean. But Dean was already dialing.

Vincent let himself into Gail's suite a short time later. She was sitting quietly on the couch, just looking at the door as if she'd known he was coming. He raised an eyebrow, but then he smiled at his own foolishness. Her psychic powers would have died when she did. No; she was just intelligent, that was all. She would know that she was the largest jewel in the crown, the lynchpin of this whole operation. Besides, Angels didn't eat or drink, and her Exalted husband wasn't here. What else did she have to do but wait?

"I'm here to elicit your cooperation," Vincent said to Gail, approaching where she sat.

She stared at him for a moment, and then she burst out laughing. She shook her head slowly. "Let's see," she said. "I'm thinking of two words right now. Let's see how good you are at guessing. The first word rhymes with duck, and the second word is the opposite of on."

Vincent smiled slowly. "It's all right," he said. "You can say it. I won't tell anybody. Just the idea that you're thinking it only proves that you're more my daughter than you're willing to admit."

"Yeah, well...give the lab your DNA, and we'll meet on Maury," she said tartly. "Then we'll find out for sure. Either that, or you could just wait till Cas gets here. Then it'll be a moot point, anyway."

"Your husband can't kill me, remember?" Vincent said calmly. "He already tried."

Gail shrugged. "We'll see. In any case, he'll be only too glad to get lots of your blood for the sample. Lucifer kidnapped me and tried to get my cooperation, too. That didn't work out too well for him. And Lucifer was the Devil himself. You're just some dime-store horror novel villain." Gail suddenly realized that she owed Death an apology, or at the very least, a commission, for that line. But the line was too good not to use in this instance, she thought.

"But the thing is, I'm not a villain, not at all," Vincent said to her. "I'm reaching out to you, Gail. I'm your father, and I've neglected you for far too long. I only want to get to know you, and spend some time with you. But I knew you would never agree to that voluntarily. That's why I want to start things off on the right foot. Here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, moving closer to her to hand it to her. "I want you to call Cas, and assure him you're all right," Vincent continued. "He must be worried sick. In fact, why don't you tell him to come here? Then he can see for himself."

Gail had taken the phone from him when he'd handed it to her, but now, she started to laugh again. "You've got to be kidding with that," she said to her father. "How many movies have you seen, anyway? One? This is every bad cliche, all rolled into one extremely bad film. Why don't we just cut to later in the movie, and go to your secret lair right now? Oh, please tell me you have sharks with laser beams. That might even make this whole experience worth it."

Vincent frowned. "You've got your mother's smartass mouth, that's for sure. I know that Cas is God, but he must have the patience of a Saint. Or maybe you're just that good in bed. I'm very tempted to try you out myself, just for curiosity's sake."

Gail's stomach turned, but she glared at him. "Try it. I dare you," she said coolly.

Vincent laughed. "You're adorable, you know that? You sit here in a room where you have no powers, and no Angel blade, and yet, you somehow still think that you have the upper hand. Where do you get the nerve?"

She shrugged. "Probably from you. You seem to have a pretty high opinion of yourself. But in the last few years, I've dealt with way more formidable adversaries."

"Really?" Vincent said sarcastically. "Lucifer was a petulant child, having a cosmic temper tantrum. Metatron had the book smarts, but no sustainability. Raguel would be nothing without his Biblical sex toys, and Xavier was nothing but a puffed-up Prudence Pureheart, with an inflated sense of self-importance. Let's see, who am I forgetting? Oh, yes. Crowley. He might actually be a serious contender, because he's family. There's no one who can love you more than family, or so they tell me, but there's also no one who can screw you into the ground better than your closest kin, either. And you can quote me on that."

Gail's mind flashed back to her recent stint in Hell. Well, Daddy Dearest wasn't wrong about that last point, anyway. Crowley's vendetta against Cas had gone on since the beginning of time itself, and Gail had married into it. She thought about the tag under her hairline. They still hadn't had the chance to deal with that, yet. She had been planning to show it to Sam and Dean, to find out if they could tell her how worried she should be about it. But she sure hadn't seen this latest crisis coming. She supposed, in retrospect, she really should have, though. But she'd been spinning all these plates for as long as she could remember. It only made sense that one or two would start to wobble, as she rushed around trying to deal with all of their problems, one at a time.

"Call Cas," Vincent said, nodding encouragingly. "I know that seeing him will make you feel better. It always does, doesn't it?"

Gail was staring at her father expressionlessly, but her mind was racing. It had to be some kind of a trap. But how could Vincent trap God? Had he aligned himself with Raguel, maybe? But even if he had, there was still no proof that Raguel was actually capable of killing Cas. On that indescribably horrible day in Egypt, even with Michael's ring in his hand, Raguel had been unable to kill Cas. Unless Vincent had some other tricks up his sleeve. But somehow, she didn't think that Vincent had teamed up with anybody. He seemed arrogant enough to think that he was plenty enough of an adversary, all on his own. Well, they'd just see about that.

"I don't think so," Gail said, putting the phone down on the coffee table. "Not until I find out more about your little operation here."

Vincent smiled wolfishly. "Afraid hubby can't cut it in a straight fight? That's not very loyal, is it? God's supposed to be the most powerful entity there is, isn't he? Pick up that phone."

She continued to stare at him. Gail could tell that Vincent wasn't used to people turning him down. That probably explained all the kids he'd had over the years, she thought with faint amusement. But she'd netter not underestimate him, either. Despite her outward scorn, she realized that this was quite the place he had here. If he had the chops to pull this kind of thing off, she'd better tread a little lightly. But not too lightly.

"Why am I here?" she asked him, leaning back on the couch. "And don't give me that crap about Daddy-daughter time. Don't insult me like that."

Vincent's smile became genuine. Now, this was a much more promising area of conversation. "I want to see what you can do," he told her candidly. "That's why you're all here. A while back, I designated some of my children, the ones I thought might have the most potential, for this facility. You get a pass, of course, because I know that your powers are more than adequate. But I still want to see for myself, anyway. You can deal with me, if you want, or if you hate me that much, I can pass you over to my testers. All three of them have a very keen interest in you."

"What about Rob?" she said sharply.

Vincent shrugged. "What ABOUT him? He'll be tested, just like the others. He's fine, Gail. Don't you worry about him. He's got a setup like you do here, plus he's got all the food he could care to eat. He's a growing young man, and he's actually way skinnier than I thought he'd be. I honestly don't know where he puts it." He looked down at the coffee table and picked up the phone. "Now, call Cas."

"Wow, you really aren't used to the word 'no', are you?" she said softly. "Well, that's all right. You'll get used to it, eventually. You know, like Frank and I had to get used to not having any parents."

Vincent threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, snap!" he said delightedly. "I guess you got me, there. Very good, Gail. Very good." Then his smile faded. "That's too bad for Frank, but the two of you did all right. Besides, you DO have parents, Gail. You know, I thought about letting her just turn into dust and bones, just like Cathy. But I have an inexplicable soft spot for your mother, so I popped over there and gave her some more of her youth drink. Tell Cas he'd better cool it; she's pretty pissed off at him right now. Maybe if he buys her a pretty corsage for your wedding, she'll forgive him. And I'm your father, and I'm telling you to take this goddamn phone and call Cas!"

Gail just stared at him, and Vincent almost crushed the phone to bits in his bare hand. But, no. No. The first victory was going to be his, not hers. She needed to know who really had the upper hand here.

He strode over to the wall across from the couch and pressed a button. A panel slid open and revealed a TV screen. Vincent took the control panel out of his pocket, showing it to Gail. "Remember this?"

Little Jenny was sitting in her room watching cartoons and sipping from a juice box. The man who'd brought her here had told her that her parents were coming for her in a minute, but she knew that he was lying.

One minute she'd been playing with her dollies in the sandbox in the back yard of her house, and the next, she'd been here. An older lady had appeared to her out of nowhere, telling Jenny that there was somewhere that they had to go, right now. Then she'd extended her hand to the child and Jenny had taken it, because the lady seemed nice and had a soothing voice and she looked like Jenny's teacher. Jenny might be very young, but she had already been taught respect for authority figures.

As soon as she'd gotten to her feet and taken the lady's hand, though, Jenny had known that she had made a mistake. This lady was here to take her to a bad place, where there were bad men. But by then, it was too late.

Jenny hugged the teddy bear that the man who'd brought her here had handed to her. That man hadn't really felt evil to Jenny when she had been holding his hand, just...without any kind of feelings.

Hugh knocked on Jenny's door now, and then he let himself in with the keycard. It wasn't as though he didn't have any feelings, exactly. They were there, they just seemed...well, unimportant at the moment. When Vincent had hired his staff, every successful applicant had been touched on the head by Dr. Roarke, and then they had become very efficient flunkies for Vincent.

Jenny smiled when she saw Hugh, and her smile widened when he told her that they were going outside to play. "Can I bring Teddy?" she asked him, gesturing with the bear.

"Of course you can," Hugh said softly. What a cute little kid.

Jenny hopped off the sofa, extending the hand that wasn't holding the bear to Hugh for him to hold. As he took it, she read him. He was taking her outside to play. He'd been telling the truth. Good.

As they walked through the Psychic Wing's hallways to get to the exit, Jenny looked up at Hugh. "Can you take this bracelet off me?" she appealed to him. "It's really heavy, and it hurts."

"Sorry, kid. I can't. Those are the rules," Hugh told her. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Let's just go out and enjoy the sunshine. There's a playground in the back. I can push you on the swings, if you want."

"Okay," Jenny said, skipping down the hall.

The TV monitor was on in Gail's suite now, and as Hugh and Jenny came outside, Vincent smiled. "That's little Jenny," he told Gail, gesturing to the screen. "My youngest psychic. She's very young, as you can see, but she might have even more juice than Rob does. Look at her, with her little teddy. Isn't that cute? She hasn't named him yet. I guess we'll have to tell her that 'Ralph' is taken, though. Am I right?"

Gail looked at Vincent sharply, and he smiled. "We'll get to that, I promise. But right now, I think we'll just watch Jenny play."

Gail looked back at the TV screen, and then at Vincent's face again. "Oh, I get it," she said. "You're trying in your not-so-subtle way to tell me that if I don't do what you say, little Jenny and the bear are going to get it. Right?"

"Boy, do you have an evil mind," Vincent said in a conversational tone. "Only a dime-store villain would threaten to do something like that. No, I'm actually going to do it."

He pushed the centre button on the control panel, and Jenny, Hugh, and the unfortunate Teddy exploded instantly.

"Frank and Jody called me to tell me that Rob was missing, too," Cas was saying to Dean now. He had closed his eyes and said a fervent prayer of thanks when Dean had called and told him the news. The unknown was far more scary than receiving the facts. Now that Cas knew that his suspicions had been right and Vincent was holding them somewhere, he could begin to work with that.

"Can't you just use your GodVision and find them?" Dean asked him.

"No. I already tried that, Dean," Cas said irritably. "Of course I tried that. But he must have some very old magic at his disposal, and it's shielding them from my sight, somehow. I can assure you, though, that once I find the place, he will not be able to keep me out."

"How can we help?" Sam asked Cas now. He looked down at Dean's cell phone, which was sitting on the bed, on Speaker. "We want to help."

"Until we can locate the place, we can do nothing," Cas said, pursing his lips in frustration. "Just make sure you keep me apprised of any developments, should Rob contact Quinn again. Where are the two of you now?"

"Still in Auburn," Dean said. "We were gonna spend the night, but now that this is happening, we're heading back, immediately. Are you gonna call Frank and let him know what's going on?"

Cas was paralyzed with indecision. On the one hand, he didn't want Frank and Jody to be frantic about Rob, not knowing where their son was, or if he was all right. On the other hand, he had zero information for them right now.

There was a beep in his ear. "I've got another call coming in, Dean," Cas told his friend. "Call me when you get back to the bunker." He disconnected, and then pushed the button to take the incoming call.

It was Gail, and her voice was very shaky. She was desperately trying not to cry, Cas realized.

Vincent was staring at her now, watching her face closely. She didn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction.

He had blown that little girl up. He had actually done it. She had been stunned beyond belief. It had to be a trick. He'd said that that little girl had been one of his most promising psychics. Would he really just blow her up like that, then? No, it had to be a trick. CGI, maybe? "You know, I've seen people get killed on the screen in the Supernatural movie, too," Gail had said, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's amazing what they can do with special effects, these days."

Vincent was livid. He strode over to Gail and grabbed her roughly by the arm. Suddenly, they were standing outside. Gail was startled. What the hell?

"Sigils don't affect me, not one bit," Vincent said. "As you'll see, I'm no Angel." He yanked on her arm, dragging her over to the spot where Jenny and Hugh had been standing. "Look. What do you see? See that red stuff? That's blood. See the white stuff? Brains."

Gail was silent, and Vincent's grip on her tightened painfully. "All right, fine." He snapped his fingers, and another child appeared in front of them. It was a young boy, who looked like he was about ten years old, looking at them with a puzzled and frightened expression.

"Here, let me throw up a shield, first. I don't want us getting any blowback. We're in the splash zone, here," Vincent said callously. He waved his hand dramatically in the air, and then brandished the control panel. "Boom," he said casually, and the boy exploded, sending chunks of flesh and blood and brain matter flying in all directions. Gail screamed.

"That was Harvey," Vincent told her. "He liked to read, he loved watching sitcoms on TV, and he was teaching himself how to play the guitar. Well, how about it, Gail? Do you need any more convincing? We could bring Rob out here. I don't have any compunctions about blowing him up too, if that's what it takes. I told you; I can always make more. I've got dozens here, and dozens still out there in the world, too." He reached into his pocket and took out the cell phone, extending it to Gail. This time, she took it.

"Cas, I'm OK," Gail said into the phone, because she knew that would be his first question.

"Where are you?" he asked her.

"In a deserted CIA compound in Albany, New York," she replied, looking at Vincent, who nodded encouragingly. "It's shielded, so it looks like a farm to anyone who hasn't been summoned here. But Vincent says he'll give you the longitude and latitude, as long as you come alone. And Cas, you'd better not mess around. He's killing kids. Come alone, and come unarmed."

Vincent clucked his tongue impatiently. "Give me that," he said, grabbing the phone from her hand. "Hey, hi, Cas. It's me. Your father-in-law. Oops, I guess that's a bit of a misnomer these days, though, isn't it? I'll tell you what; if both you and Gail survive the next week or so, I'll be happy to walk her down the aisle for you."

"I will take you apart, piece by piece," Cas said in his quiet voice. "I will destroy you, and I won't need a weapon to do it."

"I'd work on that wedding toast, if I were you," Vincent said cheerfully. "I had to take the phone from my dear daughter, because she ad-libbed a little bit, at the end. Don't come unarmed. I want you to bring your blade. In fact, bring hers, too. Maybe the two of you can teach me a bit of Enochian. I want us all to grow closer, as a family."

Cas was open-mouthed at the sheer gall of the man. But he made a quick recovery. Gail needed him now, and so did Rob. "Send me the coordinates, then," he said to Vincent.

"Attaboy, Cas," Vincent said delightedly. "I thought you might say that. And, don't worry. Gail and Rob really are fine. So far, that is. But, Gail is quite right: another couple of my offspring weren't so lucky. They kind of went to pieces when they met your wife. You know, on account of her being so cute, and all. So by all means, do come, and bring those blades. But that's all. If I see any backup, or any other weapons, you and I are going to have a problem, and so are all of these innocent folks, both kids and adults, who are currently guests at my establishment. Are we clear on that, Castiel?"

"Crystal," Cas said in a clipped tone.

"Good. Terrific. Spoken just like the soldier you used to be," Vincent said, nodding his approval. "There are going to be a couple of very interesting reunions here, in the next couple of hours. Now, write these coordinates down, and we'll see you in thirty minutes. Not a moment sooner."

Vincent hung up the phone, smiling down at Gail. "There. Hubby'll be here in half an hour. Do you want to go inside and fix yourself up for him a little? Or would you rather just stand out here and wait? You could try to kill me, if you want. Just, you know, to pass the time. But, a word of warning: the control panel for those bracelets is highly sensitive. One little spark, and boom, there go the kids. You and Frank are getting along very well these days, aren't you? It would be a shame if you were the one who was responsible for his son being blown to pieces. Still, I'd love to see a sampling of what you can do. I'll tell you what." He snapped his fingers, and a couple of mannequins appeared in the field behind the compound. "Pretend those are me. What would you do to me right now, if you could?"

Gail looked at him coldly. Fine. He wanted her to play? She could play, until Cas got here. And at least if she kept Vincent occupied, it would keep him away from the kids, and that damned control panel. Once Cas got here, he and Gail could team up and figure out how to get them all out of this situation.

But, wait a minute: they were out here in the open air, and if he was telling her she could use her powers here, then what was to prevent her from just winking out, right now?

"I know what you're thinking," Vincent said slyly. "Go right ahead and leave, if you want. But Rob stays here with me, and I can't guarantee he'll last until you come back with reinforcements. Don't worry, Gail. The Almighty is coming. He'll deliver you from Evil, I'm sure. Now, what would you do to me?"

Gail was seething. She looked out at the mannequins. She extended one of her arms, and the first mannequin went flying across the field. Then she concentrated, extending her other arm. She said the Enochian phrase, and the golden beams shot out of her fingertips, boring a hole clean through the second mannequin.

"Not bad," Vincent said admiringly. "That'll do, for a start. But the half hour will be up soon, and I'm sure your husband is one of those punctual types. So we'd better get you ready for him."

Then he grabbed Gail's arm, teleporting them both back into the compound.

Cas appeared in the same spot where they'd been, a short time later. Vincent had given him those exact same coordinates for a reason. Cas saw the mannequins right away. That was Gail's handiwork; he was sure of it. If she had been out here, though, why had she not just winked herself away?

He sniffed at the air. Was that...? He walked over to where the children had stood, just before Vincent had activated their bracelets. Yes. Cas looked down at the ground. Blood, and brain matter. Fresh, too. He drew his blade out of his pocket and advanced towards the building. He slipped inside.

Cas walked quietly through the halls, seeing no one. Then he came upon a large room with double doors. One of the doors was slightly ajar, and he peered inside. Vincent was sitting at the head of the table, and Gail was sitting next to him.

"Do come in, Castiel," Vincent said in a pleasant tone. "Don't be shy." He waved his hand, and the door swung all the way open.

Cas entered the room, moving slowly. His eyes darted all the way around the room, but there appeared to be nothing else to see. "Are you all right?" he asked Gail. "Has he hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Cas," she said in a subdued tone.

"Walk around the table and sit beside your wife," Vincent instructed Cas. "No sudden movements. Just keep things nice and easy, just like you're doing."

Cas's wind was up. Something wasn't right, here. Gail was sitting completely still, her hands in her lap. He could see in her eyes that she was glad to see him, but she didn't move, nor did she say a word. So, until Cas figured out what was going on here, he'd better comply. He slowly put his blade back in his pocket and moved around the table, away from Vincent, to the chair beside Gail. Cas eased himself into it, looking at Gail's face. She looked back at him, still not saying a word.

"Welcome, Castiel," Vincent said calmly. "You'll understand, I'm sure, why I can't bring myself to call you by your job title. You may be the Lord, but you're not MY Lord. You might say I'm the master of my own domain, in a manner of speaking. You and I actually have a lot in common. People worship us both, either voluntarily, or otherwise. Am I right, Cas? I know you're taking the kinder, gentler approach to things these days, though. Kudos to you for that. I'm really going to try to follow your example. But that'll all depend on the two of you. All I'm trying to do here is get acquainted with my family. Find out what my kids can do. What's wrong with that?"

Cas's brow furrowed. "You'll pardon me, of course, if I say that I don't believe you," he said coolly. He looked at Gail. "What's going on here? Are you sure you're all right? I brought your blade. It's in my other pocket. Why don't you take it, and I'll take mine, and we will shut his mouth, once and for all?"

"Because of this," Vincent said, showing Cas the control panel he held in his hand. "Why don't you tell him about what it can do, Gail?"

She told Cas quietly about the bracelets, and about what she had witnessed. "So if we attack him, he'll just push the button," Gail said miserably. "I can't be responsible for any more deaths like that, Cas."

Cas looked at the control panel. "Think about that very carefully, Cas," Vincent said to him. "It'll be really hard for you to maintain a good relationship with your brother-in-law if you're responsible for blowing up Frank's kid, won't it? You're already on thin ice with your mother-in-law, as it is."

Cas glared at him. "What is the point to this meeting?" he asked Vincent.

"I told you. I just want to get acquainted. I only have a bit of intel on you, and let's face it, most of it is quite biased against you," Vincent said, still in that conversational tone. "I'd like to try to keep more of an open mind about the guy who wants to marry my daughter. Or, re-marry her, I guess I should say. I'm frankly a little hurt that you crazy kids didn't send me an invitation to the first ceremony. But, I digress. I've gotta tell you, though, I've heard some disturbing things about you, Cas."

"What are you talking about?" Cas said through clenched teeth. "What have you heard?"

Gail looked at her husband. He had to be kidding with this. With everything that was going on here, he had chosen that to focus on? But slowly, and ever so slightly, Cas nudged her knee with his, under the table.

"All right. If you really want to know, I'll tell you," Vincent said with a slight smile. "You leave the cap off the toothpaste, you leave the toilet seat up, and your library books are constantly overdue. Oh, and you've obviously seen the same bad movies I have. The one where, if you keep the egomaniacal bad guy talking long enough, you'll distract him long enough for one of you to lunge for the control panel. Well, go ahead, Castiel. Take it." Vincent scooped it up and tossed it to Cas, who caught it awkwardly, making sure his fingers didn't touch any of the buttons.

"Careful! We wouldn't want you to regulate the temperature in any of the rooms," Vincent said, smirking. "We both know that Gail will be pissed off if the thermostat in her room goes up. You should see your faces right now. The other control panel is in my pocket." He looked at Gail. "I know that Miss Manners says it's impolite, but I think it'll speed things along if you put your arms on the table, dear."

Gail let out the breath she'd been holding. She removed her hands from her lap and splayed them out on the table. She had two bracelets with the explosives on, one on each wrist.

"That's what's known as upping the ante," Vincent said to Cas. "But, look who I'm telling. It's going to be a lot of fun playing poker with you. We'll see who blinks first. So, here's what's going to happen, Cas. You're going to leave here at the end of our little conversation, and you're not going to come back, until and unless I say it's all right. I'll do what I set out to do here, and you'll return to your Godly duties. Once my tests are concluded and I have things all lined up the way I want them, everyone will be returned to the loving bosoms of their respective families. But until then, buzz off, Castiel. I don't want to see you, or hear from you, until I'm done. Are we understood?"

"You're delusional," Cas snapped.

"Am I?" Vincent said mildly. "Or, is it you who's delusional? Let's see if those Godly powers of yours can help you figure out how to save your wife, your nephew, and all these other innocent people from being blown to bits, if I decide to reach into my pants and play a little pocket pool. Unless you've got a red shirt with a lightning bolt on underneath that fetching ensemble, I doubt that you can dash around and teleport them out of here all at once. And even if you could, they've still got those bracelets on, and I've still got the controls. The explosions will be simultaneous, and they'll be instant, not to mention spectacular. Remember that poor girl Lise, in Paris? Remember how quickly she disintegrated, the poor little fishy?"

Vincent leaned back in his chair, eyeing Cas. "You know, it's a real shame. If you weren't so righteous now, you and Gail and I could have been a real team. You've trained her well, Castiel. I've got to hand it to you, there. Frank opted to keep her out of our world, for the most part, but I think that was the wrong approach. From everything I've seen, the girl is a natural. She obviously responds well to your instruction. If I thought I could trust you, I would invite you to stay here throughout the testing process. You could stay with my girl, and keep her happy. And you could help with discipline, or use the compassionate approach, with those who cooperate. I have to admit that compassion has never been my forte. I'm an amoral sociopath. Ask anyone. Well, anyone I haven't killed, anyway. Sort of like you used to be, Cas. Remember the good old days of the Angel Wars? Your fellow Angels were just pawns on the chessboard then, weren't they? Stepping stones to your goals. If hundreds had to be sacrificed to gain a little ground, what of it? The war machine always cranks out more, doesn't it, Castiel? Sort of like me with my children, no matter how old they or I might be. I am immortal, and I have been siring for centuries now. A lot longer than you might think. You might be surprised. In fact, I know you would be."

Vincent looked at Gail now. "I see by my daughter's face that you must have come clean to her about your past, for the most part. No shocks to be had there, right, Gail? Well, that's good, at least. It's good not to have any illusions about your intended, going into a marriage. That way, neither of you is disappointed."

"How do you know about that stuff, anyway?" Gail blurted out. The curiosity had overwhelmed her. "How do you know that we need to get re-married? Only our closest friends and family know about that. In fact, we haven't even confirmed publicly in Heaven that Patricia nullified our marriage."

"You know what? You're quite right," Vincent agreed affably, nodding. "Here I sit, acting exactly like that cliche movie bad guy, after all. Blathering on. What I hear you saying is that you'd like me to get to the point. Fine. I can do that. How do I know that Patricia nullified your marriage? Easy. I have a source, directly from Heaven itself. Or, rather, I HAD a source in Heaven. He's back down here with me, now. I'm not sure if you ever had the dubious pleasure, Gail, but I know that Castiel has. Meet one of my testers, Dr. Roarke."

The Angel entered the room, taking a seat at the other end of the conference table. Cas looked at him in horror, remembering the man who had given him regular injections in Heaven's prison, at Patricia's behest.

"Dr. Roarke is going to test the teleporters," Vincent continued. "Since he is an Angel himself, he understands the process. He can also medicate the subjects, or modify their minds, if need be. I'm anticipating that Gail will help out with those types of tasks, too, once she gets fully on board. Perhaps before you leave, you can caution her as to how undesirable Dr. Roarke's medicine can be, Cas. I promise, I'll only use his injections as a last resort."

Gail's eyes were wide now. She had never met Dr. Roarke in person, but she remembered seeing him talking to Patricia when she was in Cas's mind. Oh, God. Dear God. She had seen first-hand what that poison had done to Cas.

"I have another tester," Vincent went on. "This one's a human. He'll be working with the psychics. He has a lot of knowledge when it comes to the human psyche, and experience in bending people to his will. And I must say, so far his expertise in the field of explosives has paid off handsomely. Merci bien, mon ami."

The door opened again, and Benoit emerged. He sketched a sarcastic bow to the couple, then sat beside the doctor.

"Oh, come on!" Gail quipped nervously. "Who's behind Door Number Three? Xavier? Raguel? Lucifer? I'll just take the cash and go home, Monty. I don't want to play any more."

Vincent smiled delightedly. "She got that sharp tongue from her mother," he said to Cas, "but she obviously got the wit from me."

"I got it from Frank, you child-killing bastard. What is the point to what you're doing right now?" Gail said angrily.

"Pure entertainment," Vincent said in a smug tone. "Sometimes, you just have to have a little fun. So, to continue: this last tester brings a very unique set of skills to the table. He'll be testing the telekinetics, and I have no doubt that he'll be able to keep them in line." He smirked at Gail. "And, in keeping with our game show theme, will the mystery guest sign in, please?"

The door opened slowly, and Jason sauntered into the room. "Well, hello, you two," he said to Cas and Gail. "It's been way too long. How are things?"

The Angels were speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. What the hell was going on here? What was this, David Letterman's Top Ten List of Heinous Villains? Gail stared at the door, half expecting all of her and Cas's enemies to come spilling out of it, like clowns from the world's most disgusting clown car. Which, if she thought about it, would have almost been an amusing visual image, if she weren't so shocked right now.

Cas was shocked too, but the anger had been building up inside of him, and now it was so strong that he could hear his pulse in his ears. "You would set these - abominations - on children?" he spat out indignantly. "They are evil sadists, all of them!"

"I know," Vincent said happily. "And they say you can't get good help any more, these days."

Cas was shaking with rage now, fighting the overwhelming urge to leap at Vincent and tear the man's throat out with his bare hands. Rain Holy fire down on the place. But he forced himself to take a deep breath, looking at the bracelets on Gail's wrists. He'd been taking surreptitious glances at them ever since she'd put her arms up on the table. They looked like weight bracelets, the kind of bands that humans wore on their arms when they were working out. He didn't want to stare too long and be too obvious about it, but it appeared as though the bracelets were simply fastened by Velcro. Could they not just be taken off, then? No, there had to be more to it than that. And even if there were not, Gail's biological father was quite right: Cas couldn't pop around to every room, all at once. A multitude of Angels could, but Cas was sure that Vincent would have sigils painted all around the compound. If they weren't able to get into certain areas of the building, the mission would be a failure. And the way that Vincent appeared to have it all set up, if one died, all of them would die who still had their bracelets on at the time. No, it wouldn't be as simple as just undoing the Velcro. Vincent wouldn't be stupid enough to put explosives on people and then give them an easy way to take them off. So, what was it, then? An ancient spell of some kind? That had to be it.

Vincent saw Cas, looking at Gail's bracelets but trying to pretend as if he wasn't looking. The hamster wheels were spinning furiously now. Good. If there was anything that Vincent couldn't abide, it was a stupid person. If he allowed them to live, Castiel and Gail were going to be rejoined in the bonds of matrimony eventually, he was sure. He had no idea what the rest of the steps of the annulment process were, but Vincent knew the two of them were just like magnets and steel. No, that analogy was wrong, because they didn't even have to be in proximity to each other in order to feel the pull. That was why he had to put the pedal to the metal here and now, to pull out all the stops to convince Cas to stay away for the time being.

"So were we here just for the shock value, or do you want us to menace them a little?" Jason said with dry humour.

"How are you even here, anyway?" Gail asked him. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Oh, here and there," Jason said casually. "Your father and I discovered each other when we found out that we have similar interests, and we help each other out. I bring him whatever he needs for his rituals, and he provides me with an endless array of victims, once he's done with them. Hey, I have to do something to fill my days. It's a shame you won't be joining us, Castiel. Between the two of us, we would have all of the subjects jumping through hoops and balancing beach balls on their noses by weeks' end, if they knew what was good for them." He smirked. "Don't worry, I've been talking you up to your prospective father-in-law, so he won't believe all those stories about you taking the compassionate approach. He might think you're not really a man, if those reports were to be believed. I told him you're just prone to the occasional, unfortunate bout of conscience. He's promised to try not to hold that particular character flaw against you. I'm the one who told Vincent about Dr. Roarke, too. You just made his personal acquaintance fairly recently, Castiel, but I've known him for years and years. He's been working on different cocktail combinations of drugs for ages, since back before the Wars, even. Even though his victims were all Angels, they were all susceptible to his injections. You know what that's like, Castiel, don't you? Once a vessel is taken, it's subject to human frailties, which means that Angels can bleed, and feel pain, and be affected by drugs coursing through their bloodstream. Or, they can explode," he added, grinning at Gail.

"And I found out about Benoit from Patricia," Roarke chipped in. "I didn't personally witness the debates, but I heard about that notorious tape, of course. Everyone in Heaven did. When we were talking about potential team members to add, individuals with the right type of...personalities for the job, I thought of Benoit."

"So now here we are, all together, a team," Benoit said. "It's a pity you aren't the man I thought you were, Cas. Although from what Jason tells me, you were very close, once."

"Why are YOU here?" Cas asked him coolly. "What possible interest could you have in what goes on here?"

"Let's just say that the idea of an elite group of people with these types of special talents appeals to me," Benoit replied evasively.

"Now that we've had our little meet and greet, I'll give the two of you ten minutes alone, to say your tearful goodbyes," Vincent said to Cas and Gail sarcastically. "You'll forgive me if I absent myself for this part. It's all just a little too touching and noble for a person as horrible as myself. Here, I'll even start you off, to expedite the process: 'I'm not leaving you here with these evil men, my love.'" Then, Vincent switched to a high-pitched voice: "'But, you have to, Cas. Otherwise, that evil bastard will explode us all. What about the children, Cas? What about Rob?'" He smirked. "OK, now: Go."

Vincent snapped his fingers, and he, Jason, Dr. Roarke and Benoit all disappeared. Cas was disturbed by that. It was one thing to teleport, but to move groups of people like that, without any contact? That was power at the level of Archangel, or higher. Vincent was no simple voodoo practitioner, that was for sure.

"I hate to say it, but he's right, Cas," Gail said softly. "We're going to have to do what he says for the time being, until we can figure out what to do about this mess."

"No," he said firmly. "I won't abandon you here. I can't."

"You won't be abandoning me, Cas," Gail told him. "You'll just be regrouping. Get Sam to talk to his guy in the FBI and get information about explosives, and trip switches. Do some research. In the meantime, as long as it doesn't mean harming anyone, I'll be as cooperative as I can be with him. I don't think he wants to kill too many of us, because that would completely defeat his purpose. He's got sigils painted all over my suite, but that's good. It means he'll have to let me out, if I'm going to demonstrate my powers. I'll look around and see if I can see something that'll help us out. Maybe I'll negotiate with him, see if he'll let me see Rob. I guess you'd better talk to Frank and Jody about this, but make sure Frank doesn't go nuts, okay? We've all got to try to stay cool right now, and think our way out of this, okay?"

"Are those bracelets attached to you by Velcro?" Cas asked her suddenly.

"Yes, they are," she replied. "As soon as we got back inside to wait for you, he put them on me. I thought about putting up a fight, but he kept threatening me with that stupid control panel. Who knew that he had more than one? When he tossed that other one to you, I nearly had a heart attack."

Cas froze. That gave him an idea. Maybe if he could get someone, maybe one of Sam and Dean's friends, to make up an identical control pad, a substitution could be made. Good. All right, then. Maybe he would go to the bunker, and await Sam and Dean's arrival there. He'd better stop by Frank's place first, though, and tell them what was going on. He could tell Jody and Frank what he was thinking about now, so at least they could have some hope. Then he would talk to all of them and tell them what he was planning to do. If he could fool Vincent, they might be able to buy enough time to amass the numbers of humans and Angels needed to infiltrate the compound and free all of the so-called "subjects". Then they would kill Vincent's evil assistants, and then, if Cas was still unable to kill Vincent, he would at least make sure to make him suffer, in creative and excruciating ways.

Vincent popped back into the room. "Time's up," he said cheerfully. "Oh, don't look so grim, you two. If I'm given my space and a free hand, the testing should only take a couple of weeks or so. Surely you can live without each other until then. So go ahead and kiss her, and then get lost."

Cas touched Gail's face. "Trust that I will deliver you and Rob and all of the others from this place," he said to her.

"I know you will, Cas," she said. Her chest was hurting now. He was going to go away and leave her here, with all of these evil bastards. But they had no choice. And she did trust him. Cas would save her. She knew he would. Of course he would.

"Yes, of course he will," Vincent said heartily. "He's got a plan. I know he does. I can see that gleam in his eyes. Let me see if I've got this right, Cas. Great minds think alike. I've seen you studying those bracelets on her. You've surmised correctly that they're held on by Velcro. Are they uncomfortable, Gail?"

She looked at him for a moment. What an odd question. "They're not too bad," Gail replied warily. "They're a little heavy, and they pinch my skin from time to time. But I've certainly had a lot worse discomfort."

"Yes, you sure have, you poor little thing," Vincent said with mock sympathy. He looked back at Cas. "Anyway, you know that, even if you undo the Velcro, unless you can do that with all of the bracelets at the exact same time, you're going to have a lot of deaths on your hands, and your conscience. Gail will have told you, I'm sure, that there are sigils decorating her room, and they're peppered around the compound, as well. Now that you're the Almighty, they won't affect you, Cas, but they will affect your Angel friends. So, that plan is out."

"Boy, do you like to hear yourself talk," Gail said, rolling her eyes. "And I thought Crowley was bad."

Vincent laughed, a brief, high-pitched laugh that was almost a giggle. It tickled him to hear her invoke her brother's name like that, without any idea of their true relationship. Vincent had made a veiled reference to their familial relationship a little earlier, but she'd obviously thought he'd been referring to Crowley's kinship with Castiel, rather than with her. What an incestuous little family they were. It was delicious. Maybe Vincent would drop the bomb on her, and maybe he wouldn't. He hadn't quite made up his mind about that, yet. Or maybe he would just wait until Castiel was back in the picture. No, wait. Better still, get all three of them in a room at once and then drop the mother of all H-bombs. See what they did with that. Vincent had no idea that Raguel had already told Crowley about his and Gail's true relationship, but even if he had known, that wouldn't have spoiled the fun altogether. None of them knew about Vincent's involvement in the conception, or the fact that Vincent had already made the King of Hell's acquaintance, when Vincent had been wearing a different face.

But those particular little gems would have to wait for another day. The time wasn't right, not just now. Vincent had a lot of bombs in his arsenal. Pun definitely intended.

"It just so happens that I have a mellifluous speaking voice," Vincent said, mocking Gail again. "But, seeing as you seem to be so anxious for Castiel to leave, I'll get right to the point. If you can't do anything about the bracelets, then how about the controls? If you can swap out the real control pad for a fake one, I can sit here and mash buttons like an idiot, and you can all run circles around me, merrily ripping Velcro. How am I doing, Cas? Am I in the ballpark?"

Cas was frowning. Gail's father may be an egotistical, amoral ass, but he wasn't a stupid one.

"Let's test out that theory, shall we?" Vincent went on. "I want you to take Gail's arm tenderly in your hands, grab hold of that Velcro, and gently pull on it. Take both bracelets off of her. You heard our poor little fishy. Her skin is getting pinched. Go ahead, Cas. Look." Vincent was holding his hands up, away from his body. "My hands are nowhere near the controls. I'm not going to explode her, you have my word. I just want to show you something. Come on, Cas. Do it."

Cas hesitated. What was this madman playing at now? But, he really wanted those bracelets off of Gail. So he took hold of her arms and gingerly removed the bracelets, placing them on the table.

"There. Isn't that better?" Vincent said cheerfully. "No more ow-ies. Oh, but what are those red marks on my poor baby's wrists, now?"

Cas brought Gail's wrist closer to his face. Then he looked at Vincent, puzzled.

"Isn't science fantastic?" Gail's father said. "The reason the bracelets were so easily removed is because they were a decoy. They pinched because they were imbedding the real explosives into everyone's skin. The bracelets can come off everybody, now. Oh, and, here." He reached into his pocket and brought out the control pad. Then Vincent walked over to where the couple stood and extended it to Cas. "Here. Take it. It's of no use to me, any more. The explosive chips that are imbedded into everyone's skin can't be controlled by a hand-held device. How primitive would that be? Welcome to the future, my children." He looked down at the red marks on Gail's wrists. "The explosives are computer-controlled, and three guesses who the only one is who knows the password. I'll give you a couple of hints: It isn't 'Rosebud', and it isn't 'Austin Powers'," he added, looking at Gail's face. "Full points for the quip about the laser sharks, though. In retrospect, I've gotta admit, that was pretty funny."

Then Vincent looked at Cas, his smile fading. "I'll give you ten seconds to leave, or Gail and I will have a date with my computer. One - two - three - "

"I'll be back, my love," Cas said quickly, glaring at Vincent.

"Four - five - six - "

"I love you, Cas," Gail said to him, trying to keep her composure.

"Seven - eight - nine...say it, Cas," Vincent taunted him. "Don't leave the poor girl hanging."

"I love you too, Gail," Cas said, looking at her with despair. Then, he vanished.

Vincent grinned down at his daughter. "Now, let's get to work."

\- END OF BOOK 33. -


End file.
